Nucleation of polypropylene with gold nanoparticles. Part 1: Introduction of sandwich method for evaluation of very weak nucleation activity

0342351 - ÚMCH 2011 RIV US eng J - Journal Article
Pavlova, Ewa - Šlouf, Miroslav - Šandová, Hana - Baldrian, Josef - Sikora, Antonín - Lednický, František - Masirek, R. - Piorkowska, E.
Nucleation of polypropylene with gold nanoparticles. Part 1: Introduction of sandwich method for evaluation of very weak nucleation activity.
Journal of Macromolecular Science - Physics. Roč. 49, č. 2 (2010), s. 392-404. ISSN 0022-2348. E-ISSN 1525-609X
R&D Projects: GA AV ČR KAN200520704
Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z40500505
Keywords : gold nanoparticles * isotactic polypropylene nucleation * transcrystallization
Subject RIV: EB - Genetics ; Molecular Biology
Impact factor: 0.602, year: 2010

Although gold particles are known to nucleate isotactic polypropylene (PP), the nucleating effect of chemically pure 5 nm Au, prepared in vacuum sputter coater, was found to be hardly observable. In order to detect such a weak effect, we deposited a homogeneous layer of Au nanoparticles between thin PP films and evaluated the nucleation activity by a combination of three independent methods: polarized light microscopy (PLM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and 2D wide-angle X-ray scattering (2D-WAXS). This new technique, which was called sandwich method, allowed us to demonstrate that gold nanoparticles were able to nucleate PP crystallization, although the effect was much weaker than that produced by commercial .alpha.-nucleant [1,2,3,4-bis(3,4-dimethylbenzylidene)sorbitol] and .beta.-nucleant (N,N-Dicyclohexyl-2,6-naphthalene dicarboxamide). The sandwich method appeared to be quite universal and applicable for any micro-sized nucleants or nanonucleants.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0185104