Effect of an alpha-phase nucleating agent on the crystallization kinetics of a propylene/ethylene random copolymer at largely different supercooling

The effect of addition of 0.1 wt% phosphate-ester based alpha-phase nucleating agent on the crystallization of a random propylene-based copolymer with 3.9 mol% ethylene has been investigated by fast scanning chip calorimetry (FSC). Main purpose of the work was the evaluation of the effect of the nucleating agent on the bimodal temperature dependence of the crystallization rate of propylene-based polymers caused by a change of the nucleation mechanism from heterogeneous to homogeneous nucleation on lowering the temperature to below about 60 °C. Presence of the nucleation agent in the copolymer of the present study accelerates crystallization only in the high-temperature range of predominant heterogeneous nucleation, but does not affect the crystallization rate in the low-temperature range of homogeneous nucleation. The observed decrease of the minimum crystallization half-time due to the addition of the nucleation agent, from 0.2 s in case of the unmodified copolymer to 0.04 s in case of the copolymer containing the nucleating agent, is paralleled by an increase of the critical cooling rate required to inhibit crystallization on continuous cooling to below the glass transition temperature from 102 to 103 K s-1. The study is completed by an analysis of the effect of addition of the nucleation agent on the spherulitic superstructure.