Skip to main content
Article Publicly Available

Chemical Structure and Physical Properties of Cyclic Olefin Copolymers (IUPAC Technical Report)

Published/Copyright: September 1, 2009
Download Article (PDF)
Become an author with De Gruyter Brill
Author Information
Chemistry International -- Newsmagazine for IUPAC
From the journal Chemistry International -- Newsmagazine for IUPAC Volume 27 Issue 5

_

Chemical Structure and Physical Properties of Cyclic Olefin Copolymers (IUPAC Technical Report)

Ju Young Shin, Ji Yong Park, Chenyang Liu, Jiasong He, and Sung Chul Kim

Pure and Applied Chemistry

Vol. 77, No. 5, pp. 801–814 (2005)

The modification of general-purpose polyolefin materials in order to enable their use as engineering plastics is currently a relevant topic for industrial as well as academic research. Cyclic olefin copolymers comprise one of the new classes of polymers based on cyclic olefin monomers and ethene. Because of the bulky cyclic olefin units randomly or alternately attached to the polymer backbone, the copolymer becomes amorphous and shows the properties of high glass-transition temperature, Tg, optical clarity, low shrinkage, low moisture absorption, and low birefringence.

With these properties, the application of cyclic olefin copolymer has now been extended to production of plastic lenses and optical storage media, and is currently being produced by Mitsui Chemical Co., Ticona (formerly Hoechst Celanese), Japan Synthetic Rubber, and Zeon Chemicals Co.

Typical polymerization scheme for a cyclic olefin polymer.

There are several types of commercial cyclic olefin copolymers based on different types of cyclic monomers and polymerization methods. Cyclic olefin copolymers are produced by chain copolymerization of cyclic monomers such as 8,9,10-trinorborn-2-ene (norbornene) or 1,2,3,4,4a,5,8,8a-octahydro-1,4:5,8-dimethanonaphthalene (tetracyclododecene) with ethene, Ticona’s TOPAS, Mitsui Chemical’s APEL, or by ring-opening metathesis polymerization of various cyclic monomers followed by hydrogenation (Japan Synthetic Rubber’s ARTON, Zeon Chemical’s Zeonex and Zeonor).

Recently, a considerable amount of work has been reported on the physical properties and microstructure of cyclic olefin copolymers. Most of these reports correlated the composition, microstructure, and thermal properties of ethene-norbornene copolymer. A few studies have been made on the influence of chemical structure on the thermal properties of cyclic olefin copolymers. There is no report on the surface characteristics of these polymers.

This paper analyzes the chemical structure of the currently commercialized cyclic olefin copolymers by 13C NMR, and investigates their glass-transition temperatures and surface characteristics. It was observed that the glass-transition temperature of cyclic olefin copolymers depended on the bulkiness of the main chain, and the number of rings had an important role in increasing the bulkiness of cyclic olefin copolymers. Cyclic olefin copolymers with polar substituents such as ester or ether groups showed high surface energy per area and peel strength.

www.iupac.org/publications/pac/2005/7705/7705x0801.html

_

Page last modified 22 August 2005.

Copyright © 2003-2005 International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry.

Questions regarding the website, please contact edit.ci@iupac.org

Published Online: 2009-09-01
Published in Print: 2005-09

© 2014 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co.

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Masthead
  2. From the Editor
  3. Contents
  4. Achieving Important Goals with the Right Combination of “Hard Cash” and Volunteers
  5. Advancement of Harmonized Approaches for Crop Protection Chemistry in Latin America
  6. Challenges for Chemists
  7. An Update on the Kilogram
  8. Lida Schoen Made Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau
  9. Address to Younger Chemists
  10. In Memorium: Jacques-Emile Dubois (1920–2005)
  11. Emerging Issues in Developing Countries
  12. Simples and Compounds: Another Opinion
  13. Erratum: Wolfram vs. Tungsten
  14. Terminology for Biomedical (Therapeutic) Polymers
  15. Teaching School Children About Pesticides and Health
  16. Towards Defining Materials Chemistry
  17. Thermodynamics of Ionic Liquids, Ionic Liquid Mixtures, and the Development of Standardized Systems
  18. Ionic Liquids Database
  19. Future Plans
  20. For Further Information
  21. Chemical Structure and Physical Properties of Cyclic Olefin Copolymers (IUPAC Technical Report)
  22. Polyaniline: Thin Films and Colloidal Dispersions (IUPAC Technical Report)
  23. Terminology in Soil Sampling (IUPAC Recommendations 2005)
  24. Numbering of Fullerenes (IUPAC Recommendations 2005)
  25. Gaseous Fluorides of Boron, Nitrogen, Sulfur, Carbon, and Silicon and Solid Xenon Fluorides in All Solvents
  26. Polymers in Novel Applications
  27. Bio-Based Polymers: Recent Progess
  28. Macromolecules
  29. Fats, Oils, and Oilseeds Analysis and Production
  30. Carbohydrates
  31. Polymer-Based Materials
  32. Fine Chemistry and Novel Materials
  33. Water Contamination by Arsenic
  34. Humic Science
  35. Green and Sustainable Chemistry
  36. Photochemistry
  37. Organic Synthesis
  38. Macromolecules
  39. Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
  40. Mark Your Calendar
https://doi.org/10.1515/ci.2005.27.5.26a

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Masthead
  2. From the Editor
  3. Contents
  4. Achieving Important Goals with the Right Combination of “Hard Cash” and Volunteers
  5. Advancement of Harmonized Approaches for Crop Protection Chemistry in Latin America
  6. Challenges for Chemists
  7. An Update on the Kilogram
  8. Lida Schoen Made Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau
  9. Address to Younger Chemists
  10. In Memorium: Jacques-Emile Dubois (1920–2005)
  11. Emerging Issues in Developing Countries
  12. Simples and Compounds: Another Opinion
  13. Erratum: Wolfram vs. Tungsten
  14. Terminology for Biomedical (Therapeutic) Polymers
  15. Teaching School Children About Pesticides and Health
  16. Towards Defining Materials Chemistry
  17. Thermodynamics of Ionic Liquids, Ionic Liquid Mixtures, and the Development of Standardized Systems
  18. Ionic Liquids Database
  19. Future Plans
  20. For Further Information
  21. Chemical Structure and Physical Properties of Cyclic Olefin Copolymers (IUPAC Technical Report)
  22. Polyaniline: Thin Films and Colloidal Dispersions (IUPAC Technical Report)
  23. Terminology in Soil Sampling (IUPAC Recommendations 2005)
  24. Numbering of Fullerenes (IUPAC Recommendations 2005)
  25. Gaseous Fluorides of Boron, Nitrogen, Sulfur, Carbon, and Silicon and Solid Xenon Fluorides in All Solvents
  26. Polymers in Novel Applications
  27. Bio-Based Polymers: Recent Progess
  28. Macromolecules
  29. Fats, Oils, and Oilseeds Analysis and Production
  30. Carbohydrates
  31. Polymer-Based Materials
  32. Fine Chemistry and Novel Materials
  33. Water Contamination by Arsenic
  34. Humic Science
  35. Green and Sustainable Chemistry
  36. Photochemistry
  37. Organic Synthesis
  38. Macromolecules
  39. Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
  40. Mark Your Calendar
Downloaded on 19.4.2026 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/ci.2005.27.5.26a/html
Scroll to top button