Improving ductility of polypropylene homopolymer by blending with ethylene copolymer and β nucleation agent

Abstract Polypropylene homopolymer (PPH) is a highly practical and widely utilized thermoplastic polymer that finds extensive applications in automotive components, piping systems, and constructed materials. Although PPH has merits such as low cost, versatility, and exceptional corrosion resistance, its low toughness limits application in specialized engineering sectors such as high‐pressure piping, aerospace components, and cryogenic environments. In this paper, the toughness of PPH was improved by blending with polypropylene block copolymer (PPB) and β nucleating agent (NP‐328). The room temperature impact strength of PPH containing 30% PPB and 0.2% NP‐328 was increased by 4.4 times, and its low‐temperature elongation at break was improved by 87%, compared to those of the pure PPH sample. Furthermore, this paper investigated the crystallization behaviors of PPH/PPB(70/30) with varying amounts of NP‐328, using crystallization kinetics studies for analysis. The crystallization rate of PPH/PPB (70/30) systems gradually adding the amounts of NP‐328 improved significantly. At 140°C, the half‐crystallization time of the PPH/PPB (70/30) containing 0.2% NP‐328 decreased by 14.5 min compared with that of PPH/PPB (70/30) without NP‐328. The high‐toughness PPH material developed in this work exhibits significant potential for application across a variety of industries, including automotive manufacturing, home appliance production, and packaging sector, among others. Highlights IS of polypropylene homopolymer (PPH) increased from 19.1 to 103.2 kJ/m2. Crystallinity of β in PPH/polypropylene block copolymer (PPB) growed to 26.8%. Low temperature toughness of PPH increased by about two times. The t1/2 of 70PPH/30PPB/0.2β was 14.5 min shorter than 70PPH/30PPB at 140 °C.