β-Nucleation of isotactic polypropylene: Chain structure effects on the effectiveness of two different nucleating agents

Of all crystal modifications of isotactic polypropylene (iPP), the β-phase has received particular attention in both academia and industry because of the toughness increase resulting from its formation. Several novel nucleating agents have been presented and studied in recent years, most prominently the 'lanthanum complex' WBG. The majority of these studies are based only on one type of iPP, mostly an iPP homopolymer, despite the fact that chain irregularities are known to affect ß-phase formation negatively. In the present study, several different iPP homo- and copolymers based on Ziegler-Natta and single-site catalysts differing mostly in chain defect concentration were used to evaluate the sensitivity of a 'reference' nucleating agent, quinacridonequinone, as well as WBG to chain structure effects. The results in terms of crystal structure, as well as mechanics, indicate a much greater sensitivity of WBG, resulting in a massively reduced β-phase formation for SSCiPP hompolymers and ZN-iPP random copolymers with ethylene. An increase of у-phase content in nucleation of the polymers with least regular chain structure hints at some duality for WBG as also observed for other β-nucleating agents before.