Investigation on the Structure and Performance of Polypropylene Sheets and Bi-axially Oriented Polypropylene Films for Capacitors

Polypropylene (PP) sheets are cast with various chill roll temperatures and rates, which are studied with differential scanning calorimetry, wide angel X-ray diffraction, scanning electronic microscopy and dielectric withstand voltage test system. The results show that increasing the chill roll temperature and cast rate can promote the increase of crystallinity and the growth of β-form. The PP sheets have asymmetric skin layer structures. The lower the chill roll temperature, the thicker the skin layer, the smaller the spherulite size. The electric breakdown strength (Eb) of PP sheets is mainly affected by the crystallinity but not the morphology. The PP sheets are further stretched to prepare bi-axially oriented PP (BOPP) films with various heat setting time. Our results indicate that the structure of PP sheets affects the properties of BOPP films. The as prepared BOPP films from the sheets cast at high chill roll temperature and rate have the highest crystallinity and Eb. Heat setting time has profound effect on the crystallinity and Eb, which increase first and then decrease with the heat setting time. It is expected that our study can provide guidance for optimizing process parameters.