Mechanical Properties and Elastic Behavior of Copolymers of Syndiotactic Polypropylene with 1-Hexene and 1-Octene

The mechanical properties of copolymers of syndiotactic polypropylene (sPP) with 1-hexene and 1-octene have been studied and correlated with the structural transformations occurring during stretching and relaxation. These copolymers crystallize in disordered modifications of form I of sPP, with crystallinity, melting, and glass-transition temperatures that decrease with increasing comonomer content. All copolymers show remarkable mechanical properties and elastic behavior, with great improvement of flexibility and ductility with respect to the sPP homopolymer already at small comonomer concentrations. For low comonomer content up to 4-5 mol %, the elastic recovery is associated to a reversible conformational phase transition between the trans-planar form III or the trans-planar mesophase and the helical form II, which gives an enthalpic contribution to the elasticity. As the comonomer content increases, the trans-planar conformation is progressively destabilized and the observed elastic properties are not associated with any conformational transformation during stretching and relaxation. In these cases, copolymers behave as conventional thermoplastic elastomers where elasticity is purely entropic and crystals only act as topological constraints of the elastomeric network. These copolymers represent an exemplary case of the possibility to combine in the same materials desired and apparently incompatible physical properties of elasticity, crystallinity, and strength by controlling the crystallization behavior, achieved by tailoring the chemical structure in the synthetic process.