In order to discover how the grafted side chains affect the crystallization of the graft copolymers, the ternary-monomer solid-phase graft copolymers of polypropylene (PP; PPSM) were synthesized by solid-phase grafting of maleic anhydride, styrene and butyl acrylate onto PP. The Jeziorny and Mo methods were used to investigate the nonisothermal crystallization kinetics and polarizing microscope was used to study the crystalline morphology of PPSM. Results show that the grafted side chains not only promoted the heteronucleation of PP and reduced the size of spherulites but also hindered the growth of crystals resulting in the formation of imperfect crystallization region in PP. Due to the hindrance of the grafted side chains on the crystallization, the nonisothermal crystallization energy (DE) of PPSM calculated by the Kissinger equation is evidently higher than that of PP.
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