Monetaria moneta as a novel β-nucleating agent for isotactic polypropylene

Calcium carbonate as a filler material provides some β-nucleation capacity for polypropylene in production of particle-reinforced composites. Its effectiveness in this regard mainly depends on the source of calcium carbonate, but the mechanism is not cleared yet. In this study, the prepared Monetaria moneta powder with the main component of calcium carbonate revealed high β-nucleation capacity for polypropylene, which was enhanced with increasing the filler loading with the maximum performance at 5 wt.%. Heat treatment of M. moneta indicated that β-nucleation capability was due to the nano-layer structure of aragonite crystal type in which the lattice parameter has the c-axis perpendicular to the layer and the length of c-axis applied to the dimensional lattice matches the β-phase of PP. The M. moneta powder was observed as a strong β-nucleating agent different from the conventional nucleating agents.