Study of the Relative Variations of the Thermal Properties and Crystallinity of Blends (PP/EPR)/Calcium Carbonate

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to investigate the relative variations of the constants of the thermal properties and the degree of crystallinity of the mixtures (PP/EPR)/Calcium carbonates elaborated with the Micro Bivis. We have strengthened the basic copolymer PP/EPR of a low level (5%) by three calcium carbonates models socal312, socal322v, Winnofil spm. We then subjected the different mixtures obtained, two cycles of a thermal loading under differential scanning calorimetry DSC. We finally focused on the thermal properties of isotactic polypropylene (TfP, TcP, ΔHfP, ΔHcP) and we calculated the degree of crystallinity of the mixtures. Reducing the energy cost of implementing mixtures is one of the objectives of this work. We quantified the relative variations of the above properties with those of the base copolymer. It shows that at a low loading rate of calcium carbonate, there is a decrease in the enthalpies of crystallization during the second exothermic cycle, with values that can reach 5.53 J/gPP for the basic copolymer PP/EPR. During the second endothermic cycle, there is an overall increase in isotactic polypropylene melting temperature values for all the blends as well as for the basic copolymer PP/EPR. There is evidence that calcium carbonates are useful for lowering the melting energy of isotactic polypropylene, even at a low loading rate for the majority. The number of endothermic cycles accentuates this phenomenon which is linked to the presence in our composites, of a so-called confined amorphous phase.