ABSTRACT

UTKU ULUCAN,4 ARDA AYTAC,5 BESTE BALCI,6 FUNDA COLAK,7 ECE TOPAGAC GERMEN,8 GULISTAN KUTLUAY,9 BEGUM CAN DILHAN,10 and DEVRIM BALKOSE11

1Specialist, Izmir Institute of Technology, Department of Chemical Engineering, Gulbahce Urla 35430 Urla, Izmir, Turkey

2Student, Izmir Institute of Technology, Department of Chemical Engineering, Gulbahce Urla 35430 Urla, Izmir, Turkey, E-mail: hayrullahcetinkaya@iyte.edu.tr

3PhD Student, Izmir Institute of Technology, Department of Chemical Engineering, Gulbahce Urla 35430 Urla, Izmir, Turkey, E-mail: isilkurtulus@iyte.edu.tr

4PhD Student, Izmir Institute of Technology, Department of Chemical Engineering, Gulbahce Urla 35430 Urla, Izmir, Turkey, E-mail: utkuulucan@iyte.edu.tr

5Master Student, Izmir Institute of Technology, Department of Chemical Engineering, Gulbahce Urla 35430 Urla, Izmir, Turkey, E-mail: ardaaytac@iyte.edu.tr

6Master Student, Izmir Institute of Technology, Department of Chemical Engineering, Gulbahce Urla 35430 Urla, Izmir, Turkey, E-mail: beste.blc@hotmail.com

7Master Student, Izmir Institute of Technology, Department of Chemical Engineering, Gulbahce Urla 35430 Urla, Izmir, Turkey, E-mail: fundacolak@yahoo.com

8Master Student, Izmir Institute of Technology, Department of Chemical Engineering, Gulbahce Urla 35430 Urla, Izmir, Turkey, E-mail: ecetopagac@iyte.edu.tr

9Master Student, Izmir Institute of Technology, Department of Chemical Engineering, Gulbahce Urla 35430 Urla, Izmir, Turkey, E-mail: glstnchml@gmail.com

10Undergraduate Senior Year Student, Izmir Institute of Technology, Department of Chemical Engineering, Gulbahce Urla 35430 Urla, Izmir, Turkey, E-mail: bgmdhncn@gmail.com

11Professor, Izmir Institute of Technology, Department of Chemical Engineering, Gulbahce Urla 35430 Urla, Izmir, Turkey, E-mail: devrimbalkose@gmail.com

Abstract ................................................................................................... 20 3.1 Introduction .................................................................................... 21 3.2 Experimental Part ........................................................................... 22 3.3 Results and Discussion .................................................................. 24 3.4 Conclusion ..................................................................................... 35 Acknowledgement .................................................................................. 36 Keywords ................................................................................................ 36 References ............................................................................................... 36

ABSTRACT

The morphology, composition, optical, thermal and mechanical properties of a commercial pearlescent and multilayer BOPP film were determined in the present study. The film was polypropylene and it was

biaxially oriented as shown by FTIR spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. FTIR spectroscopy indicated carbonate ions, EDX analysis indicated the presence of Ca element, X-ray diffraction showed the presence of calcite and thermal gravimetric analysis indicated 11.2% calcite was present in the film. The 30 µm film consisted of a core layer filled with calcite and 4 µm thick upper and lower layers without any filler and from different polymers. There were long air cavities in the core layer with aspect ratios of 23 and 19 in machine and transverse directions making the film pearlescent. The surfaces of the film were very smooth and had surface roughness in the range of 3.052 nm and 11.261 nm as determined by AFM. The film melted at 163.6°C had 51% crystallinity and had 6.3.nm polymer crystals when heated at 10°C/min rate. The film thermally degraded in two steps. The first and the second steps were for the polymer fraction and decomposition of calcite, respectively. For 10°C/min heating rate the onset of polypropylene degradation was 250°C and calcite decomposition was 670°C. The activation energies for polypropylene degradation and calcite decomposition were 64.8 kJ/mol and 204.8 kJ/mol. The tensile strength of the film in machine and transverse directions were 97.7 and 35.9 MPa, respectively.