Polypropylene (PP) is a versatile commodity polymer with a plethora of potential applications, in this work, short-chain branches of anhydride, amine, and various acrylate monomers with varying molecular weights were grafted onto PP using reactive extrusion. It was envisioned that such graft co-polymers can enhance the performance of PP making it a viable material such as water heating applications. The main interest herewith is to evaluate the occurrence of the grafting reaction and its effect on the thermal properties of the resulting graft co-polymers. Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC), Polarized Optical Microscopy (POM), Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), gel content, and rheology tests were conducted to evaluate the effect of grafting on the performance of PP. DSC results showed a novel increase in crystallinity and crystallization temperature indicating a nucleating effect by the grafted chains. This is correlated with TGA and rheology results, where an increase in the temperature of maximum degradation and a reduction in the viscosity proved to be converging confirmations of grafting. The results clearly indicated successful grafting of PP which resulted in improved thermal stability that is essential for use in energy applications.

聚丙烯 (PP) 是一种用途广泛的商品聚合物，具有多种潜在应用，在这项工作中，酸酐、胺和各种不同分子量的丙烯酸酯单体的短链支链通过反应挤出接枝到 PP 上。据设想，这种接枝共聚物可以提高 PP 的性能，使其成为一种可行的材料，例如水加热应用。本文的主要兴趣是评估接枝反应的发生及其对所得接枝共聚物热性能的影响。通过傅里叶变换红外（FTIR）、差示扫描量热仪（DSC）、偏光显微镜（POM）、热重分析（TGA）、凝胶含量和流变学测试来评估接枝对PP性能的影响。DSC 结果显示结晶度和结晶温度有了新的增加，表明接枝链的成核作用。这与 TGA 和流变学结果相关，其中最大降解温度的升高和粘度的降低被证明是接枝的集中确认。结果清楚地表明 PP 成功接枝，从而提高了热稳定性，这对于能源应用至关重要。