Polymer Engineering and Science, Vol.41, No.4, 656-671, 2001
Metallocene plastomer modification of polypropylenes
Plastomers are ethylene alpha-olefin copolymers made from the single site metallocene catalyst using a variety of polymerization processes. The key features are uniform intermolecular and intermolecular comonomer distribution, low extractables, comonomer dependent melting point, and low ash content. The uniform comonomer insertion resulted in low-density plastomer exhibiting both plastic and elastomeric behavior. The dual character plastomer evolved into a new class of impact modifiers for polypropylenes replacing the conventional ethylene-propylene copolymer (EPR) to produce both thermoplastic olefins (TPOs) and thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs). A hybrid TPE based on grafting of a functional butyl rubber to plastomer was explored. Low temperature impact and clarity can be achieved by matching the reflective index of a plastomer with a random polypropylene copolymer (RCP).