Preparation and Characterization of Metallocene-catalyzed Isotactic Polypropylene and/or Syndiotactic Polypropylene Single Crystals; Preliminary Studies

Single crystals of metallocene-catalyzed isotactic polypropylene (iPP) and/or syndiotactic PP (sPP) were prepared and preliminarily characterized. The crystallization was performed utilizing 0.1 % by weight concentrations of each PP in o-xylene in the range of temperature of $40{\sim}90^{\circ}C$. Following the XRD patterns, samples were ${\alpha}$-iPP and antichiral Cell III of sPP. The XRD pattern of iPP shows three ${\alpha}$-form peaks due to the (110), (040), (130) planes at $2{\theta}=14.2^{\circ}$, $17^{\circ}$, $18.8^{\circ}$, respectively. The XRD pattern of sPP is characterized by the presence of the (020) reflection at $16^{\circ}$. The melting point ($123^{\circ}C$ and $148^{\circ}C$, respectively) of the metallocene catalyzed iPP and sPP were generally lower than that of conventional PP ($160{\sim}170^{\circ}C$) due to the misinsertion of the monomer. When metallocene-catalyzed iPP samples were crystallized isothermally from solution grown at a lower temperature, lozenge shape single crystals were observed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM).