Spherulite nucleation in blends of isotactic polypropylene with isotactic poly(butene‐1)

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Abstract
The phase morphology and the influence of composition on the primary nucleation of isotactic polypropylene in isotactic polypropylene/isotactic poly(butene‐1) (iPP/iPB) blends were investigated by electron and light microscopy and small‐angle light scattering. It was found that iPP and iPB are miscible but the thermal treatment induces partial phase separation of components and the formation of iPP‐rich and iPB‐rich phases. The complete phase separation needs high temperatures and/or a long time of melt annealing. In samples crystallized isothermally at low undercooling the heterogeneous primary nucleation in blends is depressed as compared to plain iPP. In blends the less active heterogeneities lose their activity because of an increase of the energy barrier for critical size nucleus formation due to phase separation of blend components during crystallization. For the same reason the rate of homogeneous nucleation in blends decreases, as observed in samples crystallized at very high undercooling. At very high undercooling iPP and iPB are able to crystallize with similar rates, which results in the formation of a fraction of iPB spherulites in addition to iPP spherulites. Consequently the number of spherulites in the blend is larger than that in plain iPP, in spite of the decrease in the homogeneous nucleation rate of iPP in the blend. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.