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Vol.
33 No. 2
March-April 2011
The Project Place |
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Information about new, current, and complete IUPAC projects and related initiatives.
See also www.iupac.org/projects |
Relation between Rheological Properties and Foam Processability for Polypropylene
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Polypropylene (PP) foam is in great demand in industry for a variety of applications (e.g., automobile parts, food trays and packaging, insulators, and shock absorbers) because of its heat resistance, stiffness, and recyclability. However, it is difficult to obtain low-density foams with fine cell structure, especially from uncross-linked PP, because of the lack of melt elasticity. In this project, a newly developed processing modifier, acrylic-modified polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), will be employed to enhance the strain-hardening in elongational viscosity of PP. PTFE deforms into a fibrous structure during mixing in a molten PP, and the interdigitated network structure of the PTFE fibers is responsible for the marked strain-hardening. As a result, PP containing a small amount (0.5–5 wt%) of the modifier exhibits prominent melt tension with a small increase in shear viscosity. Further, foaming processability will be evaluated by various processing operations as follows: chemical blowing agent microfoaming by supercritical CO2, batch foaming, and continuous extrusion foaming.
For more information, contact Task Group Chair Masayuki Yamaguchi <[email protected]>.
www.iupac.org/web/ins/2010-029-3-400
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last modified 14 March 2011.
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