Nonisothermal crystallization and melting behavior of mPE/LLDPE/LDPE ternary blends

Nonisothermal crystallization kinetics of ternary blends of the metallocence polyethylene (mPE), low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) were studied using DSC at various scanning rates. The Ozawa theory and a method developed by Mo were employed to describe the nonisothermal crystallization process of the two selected ternary blends. The results speak that Mo method is successful in describing the nonisothermal crystallization process of mPE/LLDPE/LDPE ternary blends, while Ozawa theory is not accurate to interpret the whole process of nonisothermal crystallization. Each ternary blend in this study shows different crystallization and melting behavior due to its different mPE content. The crystallinity of the ternary blends rises with increasing mPE content, and mPE improve the crystallization of the blends at low temperature. The crystallization activation energy of the five ternary blends that had been calculated from Vyazovkin method was increased with mPE content, indicating that the more mPE in the blends, the easier the nucleus or microcrystallites form at the primary stage of nonisothermal crystallization. LLDPE and mPE may form mixed crystals due to none separated-peaks were observed around the main melting or crystallization peak when the ternary blends were heating or cooling. The fixed small content of LDPE made little influence on the main crystallization behavior of the ternary blends and the crystallization behavior was mainly determined by the content of mPE and LLDPE.