Study on non-isothermal crystallization behavior of isotactic polypropylene/bacterial cellulose composites

Abstract

Bacterial cellulose (BC) has great potential to be used as a new filler in reinforced isotactic polypropylene (iPP) due to its characteristics of high crystallinity, biodegradability and efficient mechanical properties. But the compatibility between BC and iPP is poor. The esterification modified BC (CO) and addition of maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene (MAPP) as a compatibilizer were both used to improve interfacial compatibility of iPP and BC to prepare iPP/BC composites, and the non-isothermal crystallization behavior of isotactic polypropylene/bacterial cellulose composites was discussed. The results showed that with the addition of CO or MAPP, the compatibility of iPP/BC composites greatly improved. Moreover, BC addition was found to enhance iPP crystallization due to homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation effects. In non-isothermal crystallization kinetics, it was found that the Jeziorny method and ϕ–t analysis are more accurate to describe non-isothermal crystallization behavior of iPP/BC composites. The results showed that the non-isothermal crystallization rates increase in the order of iPP/BC2, iPP, iPP/CO2, and M-iPP/BC3, indicating that the compatibility of iPP/BC composites. Moreover, the cooling rate have greatly influence on non-isothermal crystallization behavior of iPP/BC composites.