Evaluation on nonisothermal crystallization kinetics of polypropylene/kaolin composites by employing Dobreva and Kissinger methods

The influences of kaolin content, processing temperature, and shear stress on crystallization of all samples were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The crystallization activation energy calculated using Kissinger’s method displayed a decreasing trend with increasing kaolin content, processing temperature, and shear stress. A study of nucleation activity, which could indicate the influence of filler on polymer matrix, revealed that kaolin filler had a slight nucleation effect on polypropylene (PP) matrix. A thorough observation on nucleation effect also revealed that the incorporation of kaolin in tandem with increasing temperature and shear stress have contributed to successive heterogeneous nucleation in the system.