Mechanical Property of Polypropylene Gels Associated with That of Molten Polypropylenes

Abstract

This study aims to understand the fundamental mechanical relationship between polypropylene (PP)-gels and solid PPs without solvent through mechanical and thermal analyses, by which the mechanical similarities between molten PPs and PP gels were found, leading to the reliable estimate of the mechanical properties of semi-crystalline gels. The gelation of syndiotactic and isotactic polypropylenes (sPP and iPP) was found when PPs were dissolved in 1, 2, 3, 4-tetrahydronaphthalene (tetralin). Interestingly, it was found that the storage modulus of sPP-gel became higher than that of iPP-gel at low PP concentration (