Rheological properties and crystallization kinetics of polypropylene block copolymer with repeated extrusion

Rheological properties and crystallization kinetics of the polypropylene (PP) block copolymer and recycled PP block copolymer were studied by advanced rheometric expansion system (ARES), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and optical microscopy. In the study of the dynamic rheology, it is observed that the storage modulus and loss modulus for the PP block copolymer and recycled PP block copolymer did not change with frequency. In the study of the effect of the repeated extrusion on the crystallization rate, half crystallization time of the PP samples was increased with the number of repeated extrusion in isothermal crystallization temperature (T_c). From the isothermal crystallization kinetics study, the crystallization rate was decreased with the increase of the number of repeated extrusion. Also, from the result of Avrami plot, the overall crystallization rate constant (K) was decreased with the increase of the number of the repeated extrusion. From the study of the optical microscopy, the size of the spherulite of the PP samples did not change significantly with the number of repeated extrusion. However, it was clearly observed that the number of the spherulite growth sites was decreased with the number of repeated extrusion. From the results of the crystallization rate, isothermal crystallization kinetics, Avrami plots, and optical microscopy, it is suggested that the crystallization rate of the PP block copolymer is decreased with the increase of the number of repeated extrusion.