Non-isothermal crystallization behavior of polypropylene/zinc oxide composites

Abstract The non-isothermal crystallization behavior of polypropylene (PP)/zinc oxide composites with various mass ratios was investigated by differential scanning calorimetry. The Jeziorny and Mo models were applied to calculate the non-isothermal crystallization kinetic parameters of the composites. During non-isothermal crystallization, the width of the exothermic peak increased from 7°C to 12°C with increasing cooling rate. The exothermic peak position at 10°C shifted to a lower temperature, and the half crystallization time t _1/2 decreased from 2.86 min to 0.51 min. The Friedman model was used to determine the variation of activation energy at each stage of crystallization. The crystallization activation energies obtained varied significantly at each stage of crystallization. The crystallization activation energy of PP was -126.8 kJ/mol at 70% relative crystallinity but reached -232.8 kJ/mol at 10% relative crystallinity.