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Dr. Junyang Wang and Ms Jingjing Yang published a paper in ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, No. 143 paper of our group (ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2015, 7 (2), 1364-1375)

More Dominant Shear Flow Effect Assisted by Added Carbon Nanotubes on Crystallization Kinetics of Isotactic Polypropylene in Nanocomposites

CAS Key Laboratory of Soft Matter Chemistry, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui Province 230026, P. R. China
Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Materials and Devices, Institute of Polymer Materials and Chemical Engineering, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, Anhui Province 230009, P. R. China
ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2015, 7 (2), pp 1364–1375
DOI: 10.1021/am507938s
Publication Date (Web): January 8, 2015
Copyright © 2015 American Chemical Society
*Phone: +86 0551-63607703. Fax: +86 0551-63607703. E-mail: zgwang2@ustc.edu.cn.

Congrats to Junyang and Jingjing!


Zhigang et al. thank the editor of the journal and the three reviewers for their understanding of our work, their supporting to our work and their precious comments and suggestion for us to improve the quality of our work!


More dominant shear flow effect with different shear rates and shear time with assistance of added carbon nanotubes (CNTs) of low amounts on the crystallization kinetics of isotactic polypropylene (iPP) in CNT/iPP nanocomposites was investigated by applying differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), polarized optical microscopy (POM), and rheometer. CNTs were chemically modified to improve the dispersity in the iPP matrix. CNT/iPP nanocomposites with different CNT contents were prepared by solution blending method. The crystallization kinetics for CNT/iPP nanocomposites under the quiescent condition studied by DSC indicates that the addition of CNTs of low amounts significantly accelerates crystallization of iPP due to heterogeneous nucleating effect of CNTs, whereas a saturation effect exists at above a critical CNT content. The shear-induced crystallization behaviors for CNT/iPP nanocomposites studied by POM and rheometry demonstrate the continuously accelerated crystallization kinetics with assistance from added CNTs, with increasing CNT content, shear rate, and shear time, without any saturation effect. The changes of nucleation density for CNT/iPP nanocomposites under different shear conditions can be quantified by using a space-filling modeling from the rheological measurements, and the results illustrate that the combined effects of added CNTs and shear flow on the acceleration of crystallization kinetics are not additive, but synergetic. The mechanisms for the synergetic effect of added CNTs and shear flow are provided.