Identifiers
Functions
| Property | Value | Category |
|---|---|---|
| Physical Description | Polypropylene is a tan to white odorless solid. Less dense than water and insoluble in water. Hence floats on water | Appearance |
| density | 0.910–0.940 g/cm3 (LDPE), 0.9 at 68 °F, 0.9 g/mL at 25 °C (lit.) | Handling Relevant Properties |
| chemical formula | (C2H4)n | Analytical Properties |
| monomer | ethylene (ethene) | Analytical Properties |
| melting point | typically 120–130 °C (LDPE/HDPE varies; commercial LDPE around 120–130 °C), 171 °C (Perfectly isotactic PP) and 160-166 °C (commercial isotactic PP); 130 °C for syndiotactic PP with 30% crystallinity (isotactic vs syndiotactic; crystallinity; material type), 157 °C | Analytical Properties |
| state at room temperature | solid (polymer) | Analytical Properties |
| specifics on structure | polymer of ethylene with various n, is usually a mixture of similar polymers of ethylene | Analytical Properties |
| branching | high degree of short- and long-chain branching (LDPE) (LDPE) | Analytical Properties |
| temperature stability / degradation onset | degradation from exposure to temperatures above 100 °C (general note on thermal stability) | Analytical Properties |
| solubility / solvent resistance at room temperature | resistant to fats and almost all organic solvents; dissolves in nonpolar solvents (xylene, tetralin, decalin) at elevated temperature (room temperature behavior; elevated temperature behavior) | Analytical Properties |