Investigation of the Foaming Morphology of Polypropylene Molded via Microcellular Injection Assisted by Water Vapor and Gas Counter Pressure.

Abstract

The microcellular injection molding (MuCell^®) process, which uses supercritical fluid (SCF) as a foaming agent, is considered an important green molding solution to reduce product weight, molding energy, and cycle time and to improve the foam quality. However, maximizing the foaming density while keeping size uniformity in the foaming cell requires further attention. In this study, H₂O and the SCF N₂ were employed as cofoaming agents in the MuCell^® process of polypropylene (PP). Owing to the different critical points of N₂ and H₂O, bubble nucleation was expected to occur in interactive ways. Various process parameters were investigated, including the SCF N₂ content, the moisture content adsorbed within the resin under targeted PP weight reductions of 30% and 40%, the melt and mold temperature conditions, and the gas counter pressure. The resulting foaming morphology was examined to evaluate the foam quality in terms of the foaming density and bubble size distribution. The bubble coalescence, particularly in the skin layer, was examined, and the associated gas permeability flow rate was measured. The results indicated that H₂O-assisted foaming led to bubble coalescence and allowed for gas penetration in the direction of the part thickness direction, resulting in an overall increase in foaming density, particularly in the skin layer. Under high SCF N₂ and H₂O contents, the solid skin layer disappeared, regulating the gas permeability from one surface side to the other. Under the optimized process parameters, the gas permeability flow rate in the filter-like foaming PP material reached 300-450 mL/min. The application of gas counter pressure also helped increase the foam density and bubble coalescence, enhancing the gas permeability in the PP material to about 500 mL/min. These results demonstrate the potential application of microcellular injection molding using water as a cofoaming agent in moisture-release devices.