ABSTRACT:A study on the influence of the crystal modification (␣ and ) of isotactic polypropylene (i-PP) films on the resulting electret properties is presented. Two commercial nucleating agents, sodium 2,2Ј-methylene-bis(4,6-di-tertbutylphenyl)-phosphate (NA11) and N,NЈ-dicyclo-hexyl-2,6-naphthalene-dicarbox-amide (NU100), were employed in this investigation. Isothermal charge decay was measured at 90°C. In hot pressed isotropic polypropylene films, no significant differences in the charge storage properties were observed for ␣-and -nucleated specimens. In addition, the article presents the influence of the nucleating agents at different concentrations on the PP-film morphology of biaxially stretched films with respect to electret features. It was possible to prepare elongated cavities with the virtually insoluble NA11 additive during stretching, even at concentrations below 0.3 wt %. These films displayed slightly improved electret properties in comparison to stretched neat PP films due to generated cavities acting as barriers for the drift of charges. Various draw ratios were also studied for i-PP films with 0.15 wt % NA11.
Isotactic polypropylene (i-PP) films containing additives such as the commercial α -nucleation agent NA11 and the anorganic filler particles CaCO3 and Al2O3 were biaxially stretched. As a result, the films assume a cellular morphology with oblong cavities extending in the direction of the film elongation. In the present study, stretched films of 50 µm thickness with additive concentrations of 0.05–10 mass per cent were charged with a corona method to potentials of 400 or 500 V. The stability of the charges was tested isothermally at temperatures of 90 and 120 °C and by means of thermally stimulated discharge (TSD) experiments. The isothermal measurements show, for the above additives with concentrations higher than about 0.3%, a reduction of the charge decay with increasing additive concentrations. Compared with reference films of pure PP, the potential decay of the films containing additive concentrations of 10% is significantly reduced. Correspondingly, the TSD measurements indicate a shift of the main discharge peak to higher temperatures up to the melting temperature. Generally, the voiding and thus the stability also increases with the stretching ratio. These improvements of the charge stability are attributed to the barrier effect of the cavities. The results are of interest with respect to the various applications of PP electrets, such as ferroelectret devices and air filters.
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