Hydrogenated petroleum resin effect on the crystallization of isotactic polypropylene

The influence of the hydrogenated petroleum resin P125 on the crystallization behavior, crystallization kinetics, and optical properties of polypropylene (PP) were investigated. The results of differential scanning calorimetry, successive self-nucleation, and annealing fractionation demonstrated that P125 reduced the interaction between the PP molecules, decreased the crystallization, prevented PP from forming thick lamellae, and encouraged the formation of thin lamellae. The isothermal crystallization kinetics, self-nucleation isothermal crystallization kinetics, and polarized optical microscopy observations showed that P125 slightly decreased the nucleation rate, significantly decreased the crystal growth rate, generally reduced the overall crystallization rate, and effectively deceased the crystallite sizes of PP. The optical properties studies showed that P125 effectively decreased the haze and increased the surface glossiness and yellowness index of PP. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013