Polypropylene (PP) homopolymers and copolymers play a pivotal role in the plastics industry. With applications spanning automotive components, electronic housings, construction materials, and food packaging, understanding their thermal transport properties is essential. This study investigates the impact of a highly efficient 1,3,5-benzenetrisamide (BTA) nucleator (N,N′,N″-tris(3-methylbutyl)benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxamide) on the thermal diffusivity of injection- and compression-molded propylene-ethylene random copolymer (racoPP). Results are compared with those for a less efficient BTA (N,N′,N″-tris(n-butyl) benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxamide) and a control sample without additives. We supplement our thermal characterizations with x-ray diffraction (XRD) and small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) analyses and demonstrate that the processing method and the presence of BTAs can impact the crystallinity and orientation of the PP lamellae. However, the thermal diffusivity of racoPP exhibits remarkable resilience to these changes, ensuring the consistent performance that is often required in industrial applications.
Klein et al. (2025) studied this question.