Restructuring of confined crystalline morphology in the drawing process of VGCF-iPP nanocomposite filaments

Yair Shalom, Ellen Wachtel, Gad Marom*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

Solid-state drawing to high extension ratios of melt-extruded VGCF-iPP nanocomposite filaments results in remarkable increases in modulus and strength, which mask any contribution of nano-reinforcement or inter-particle confinement observed previously. Based on X-ray diffraction and thermal analyses it is shown that the drawing process involves crumpling of the original ‘shish-kebab’ structure, accompanied by lateral shrinkage of the ‘kebabs’ disappearance and reorientation of daughter lamellae and significant increases in the degree of crystallinity by solid-state recrystallization. The effects of the initial diameter of the as-extruded filaments and those of the nanofibers and the ‘shish-kebab’ structure are dominated by the drawing process, which produces a highly aligned fibrillar structure with superior mechanical properties. A cartoon model of the effect of solid-state drawing of extruded iPP and nanocomposite filaments on the transition from ‘shish-kebab’ to fibril morphology is presented.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)218-224
Number of pages7
JournalPolymer
Volume154
DOIs
StatePublished - 10 Oct 2018

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd

Keywords

  • Fibril structure
  • iPP-VGCF nanocomposites
  • Solid-state drawing

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