A reactive extrusion process with the aid of ultrasound for preparing cross‐linked polypropylene

Introducing the crosslinked structure in polypropylene (PP) was highly desired to meet the requirement of high melt strength, which was a key for the application of PP in thermoforming, blow molding and foaming where elongation flows dominated. In this work, the power ultrasound was introduced into the reactive extrusion at the exit die of an extruder for preparing crosslinked PP. The main target was to maintain the highly crosslinked structure during reactive extrusion process in case of low peroxide concentration. The results of the dynamic rheological properties, melt flow index, and extensional viscosity measurement showed that the content of PP gel and the melt strength of PP increased obviously with the employment of a 300 W ultrasound while the contents of functional monomers and peroxide were constant. Fourier transform‐infrared spectroscopy analysis, differential scanning calorimeter characterization, and gel permeation chromatograph measurement proved that the increases of content of PP gel and melt strength of PP were caused by that the ultrasonic waves could induce the chain scission and recombination reaction when the PP melts flowed through the exit die assembled with a ultrasonic probe. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 57:821–829, 2017. © 2016 Society of Plastics Engineers