Key points
- Breakthrough AFM-IR technique provides quantification of chemical concentrations of polymer nanodomains
- Quantitative technique demonstrated on complex high impact polypropylene structure (HIPPS) with high correlation to bulk FTIR
- Measurements showed clear contrast between the continuous and discrete domains for these phase-separated systems
Authors
Fuguang Tang, Peite Bao, and Zhaohui Su
Abstract
In this paper, compositions of nanodomains in a commercial high-impact polypropylene (HIPP) were investigated by an atomic force microscopy-infrared (AFM-IR) technique. An AFM-IR quantitative analysis method was established for the first time, which was then employed to analyze the polyethylene content in the nanoscopic domains of the rubber particles dispersed in the polypropylene matrix.
It was found that the polyethylene content in the matrix was close to zero and was high in the rubbery intermediate layers, both as expected. However, the major component of the rigid cores of the rubber particles was found to be polypropylene rather than polyethylene, contrary to what was previously believed.
The finding provides new insight into the complicated structure of HIPPs, and the AFM-IR quantitative method reported here offers a useful tool for assessing compositions of nanoscopic domains in complex polymeric system
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