Nacre-Mimetic Polypropylene Featuring Heterogeneous Distribution of Polymorphic Compositions via Controlled Diffusion of β-Nucleating Agent

Shi, Shaohong; Liu, Yuansen; Nie, Min; Wang, Qi

Nacre-Mimetic Polypropylene Featuring Heterogeneous Distribution of Polymorphic Compositions via Controlled Diffusion of β-Nucleating Agent

2019

Shi, Shaohong | Liu, Yuansen | Nie, Min | Wang, Qi

Design and fabrication of advanced biomimetic materials with excellent performances and special functionalities are still far from being practical as current techniques are only limited to micrometer-sized thin films. This paper proposed a facile and accessible scale-up strategy to prepare nacre-mimetic polypropylene (PP) featuring heterogeneous distribution of polymorphic compositions via directed diffusion of β-nucleating agent (NAs) and controlled crystallization. Specially, NAs were enriched selectively in polyamide 66 (PA66) matrix, and then pure PP resins were put between the NAs-containing PA66 to construct a PA66/PP/PA66 sandwich assembly and were processed by conventional compression molding. By elaborately manipulating the directed diffusion, the NAs were localized around the near-surface region of PP sample to trigger various crystallization processes along the thickness with thermodynamic advantage of α-crystal over β-crystal and assistance of the highly efficient β-nucleating agent, forming a unique hierarchical architecture featuring alternately arranged α- and β-crystals similar to natural nacre. In contrast to conventional β-PP sample with homogeneous structure, nacre-mimetic PP sample not only promoted the energy dissipation before crack initiation via lamellar slippage of exterior β-crystals, but also effectively lessened the crack extending due to the mismatched mechanical properties of the two crystals, endowing it with superior toughness. The impact strength at the low temperature of −10 °C reached 15 kJ/m², far higher than the 6.5 kJ/m² for pure PP and 10.5 kJ/m² for homogeneous β-PP.

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