Development of high melt strength polypropylene and its application in thermoplastic elastomeric composition

High melt strength polypropylene (HMS-PP) with a long-chain branched structure is a modified form of polypropylene (PP) which has basic properties of regular PP but with superior melt drawability. This paper reports on the development of gel-free HMS-PP from a linear isotactic PP through the introduction of long-chain branching on its backbone via a reactive extrusion process, using dicetyl-peroxydicarbonate (PODIC) alone or in combination with a coagent. The melt strength and the mechanical properties such as impact and flexural strength of PP showed improvements with the modification with PODIC. 5000 ppm by weight of PODIC was found to provide the best balance of properties. The efficacies of zinc diethyldithiocarbamate (ZDC) and tetramethyl thiuram disulphide (TMTD) as coagents in combination with PODIC to augment properties of HMS-PP further were explored. TMTD offered slightly enhanced performance benefits as compared to ZDC at an optimized concentration of 100 ppm by weight. The application potential of HMS-PP in thermoplastic elastomeric blends of HMS-PP with ethylene-propylene-diene monomer (EPDM) rubber at a fixed ratio of 35/65 by weight was also investigated. Structure-property correlations were established between the extent of long-chain branching in the modified PP and the properties of the resultant thermoplastic elastomeric composition.