New method of single liquid-phase reactor synthesis of high-impact polypropylene: Structure, morphology, and impact properties of copolymers

摘要

High-impact polypropylene (hiPP) copolymer is a very important material in the industry because of its various applications. It is obtained in an industrial process involving two consecutive reactions either in the same or different phases. Unlike industrial processes that yield materials with a fixed amount of ethylene without the possibility of modifying the operation variables, we are presenting a new method to synthesize hiPP materials on a laboratory scale using two sequential steps in only one reactor. This approach permits the study of the influence of variables such as H-2 addition, reaction time, and composition during the second step on the formation of propylene-ethylene copolymer materials with different properties. In the first step, the polypropylene matrix is synthesized in a liquid phase with or without addition of H-2, and, in the second step, the elastomeric phase is also obtained in a liquid phase.