Characterization of polypropylene–polyethylene blends by temperature rising elution and crystallization analysis fractionation

The introduction of single-site catalysts in the polyolefins industry opens new routes to design resins with improved performance through multicatalyst-multireactor processes. Physical combination of various polyolefin types in a secondary extrusion process is also a common practice to achieve new products with improved properties. The new resins have complex structures, especially in terms of composition distribution, and their characterization is not always an easy task. Techniques like temperature rising elution fractionation (TREF) or crystallization analysis fractionation (CRYSTAF) are currently used to characterize the composition distribution of these resins. It has been shown that certain combinations of polyolefins may result in equivocal results if only TREF or CRYSTAF is used separately for their characterization.