CLARIFIERS AND NUCLEATORS | ADDITIVES
Clear path to better resin performance
Clarifying and nucleating agents play a key role in modifying semi-crystalline polymers, in particular polypropylene, enhancing physical properties and improving clarity. Mark Holmes reports
Nucleating agents can make a real difference in many semi-crystalline polymers, including reducing processing cycle times and enhancing physical properties. They can also improve clarity and a whole subset of nucleators – clarifiers – are available that are optimised to make polypropylene (PP) transparent and improve light transmision. Covid-19 has influenced the market for clarifying and nucleating agents in plastics, according to NJC Europe. “The impact of Covid-19 has affected our daily lifestyle,” says Hieu-Dinh Phan, Sales and Marketing Manager at the company. “The increase of people working from home and growth of e-com- merce has led to a higher demand for products such as DMDBS (3,4-dimethyl benzylidene sorbitol), particularly for food packaging. Take-away and food storage containers, grocery and online shopping all require packaging with important features such as stiffness, sustainability (light in weight and recyclabil- ity), clear aesthetics and affordability. Covid-19 has also led to a surge in applications for medical grade plastics – from nonwoven face masks to test vials and disposable syringes.” According to Phan, the main factors currently
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driving the market are still related to Covid-19 and the resulting global economic slowdown. “Cost- effective solutions in the clarified field are in high demand due to rising inflation and increased raw material costs for plastics wrapping and packaging, as well as medical applications,” she says. “The main trends include affordable, environmentally friendly solutions, such as cost-effective energy saving propositions, as well as the circular economy with its ramifications across all of the polyolefins industry.” To meet demands for energy saving solutions,
New Japan Chemical and NJC Europe have developed new clarifiers that perform at low temperatures. The two companies say the RikAFAST EDX and EDXP products have been developed in close collaboration with partners in the PP industry to provide good price-performance benefits. In particular, the new grades address the shift to higher melt flow rate (MFR) resins, which are processed at lower temperatures than standard grades. They enable the clarifier and resin to form a solution at a relatively low temperature, yielding good haze values and improved aesthetics both in homopoly- mer and random copolymer polypropylene.
Main image: Clarified PP offers environ- mental gains as well as improved prod- uct aesthetics
� June 2022 | COMPOUNDING WORLD 43
IMAGE: MILLIKEN
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