Probing into the pristine basic morphology of high impact polypropylene particles

In this paper, the pristine basic morphology of high impact polypropylene (hiPP) particles prepared with an industrial MgCl2/TiCl4 Ziegler-Natta catalyst undergoing sequentially occurred propylene (P) homopolymerization and ethylene (E)/propylene copolymerization has been probed mainly using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques including plain TEM and the advanced transmission electron microtomography (TEMT). It is revealed that the basic structure units comprising a whole hiPP particle are the submicron PP (polypropylene) globule and nano-sized EP (ethylene-co-propylene) droplet. EP rubber (EPR) domain is formed by the agglomeration of EP droplets. Continually formed EP droplets turn to fill, from inside out, the micro- and macro-pores inside the preformed PP skeleton, affording different-sized EPR domains. Taking the two basic structure units into account, new quaternary structure model describing the manifold structures of hiPP particles has been proposed. From these findings, it is suggested that, to gain hiPP polymers with excellent stiffness/toughness-balanced properties, it is crucial to control the first-staged propylene homopolymerization alongside a rational design of the catalyst architecture to accomplish desired EPR dispersion morphologies that dictate hiPP properties.