Cyclo-olefin copolymers

Ethylene-cyclo-olefin copolymers have been known since 1954 (DuPont USP2 721 189) but these materials only became of importance in the late 1990s with the development of copolymers of ethylene and 2-norbomene by Hoechst and Mitsui using metallocene technology developed by Hoechst. The product is marketed as Topas by Ticona. By adjustment of the monomer ratios polymers with a wide range of Tg values may be obtained including materials that are of potential interest as thermoplastic elastomers. This section considers only thermoplastic materials, cyclo-olefins of interest as elastomers are considered further in Section 11.10. 

Table 2.7 Examples for Commercially Available Cyclo Olefin Copolymers...

J. Katajisto, M. Linnolahti, and T.A. Pakkanen, Effect of branching of cyclo-olefin copolymers and polycarbonate polymers on mechanical and optical properties Ab initio and molecular simulation study, /. Mol. Struct., 758(2-3) 189-194, 2006. 

Mitsui Chemicals, Cyclo olefin copolymer characteristics, [electronic ] http //www.mitsuichemicals.com/apel cha.htm, 2008. 

CHC CHCC CNC coc CP AC CPR CPU CVD CW Catalytic hydrogen combustion Catalytic hydrocarbon combustion Computerized Numeric Control Cyclo olefin copolymer Center for Process Analytical Chemistry Catalytic plate reactor Central processing unit Chemical vapor deposition Continous wave... 

Anon., APEL Cyclo Olefin Copolymer Product Sheet, Mitsui Chemicals Americas, Inc., 2007. 

Metallacene—catalysed Cyclo Olefin Copolymers Vincent Sullivan—Medical Device Technology Oct 1998 Developments in Technology of Polymer Mike Gaffrey, Development Engineer Hoechst UK Ltd... 

Faure K, Albert M, Dugas V, CretiCT G, Ferrigno R, Morin P, Rocca JL (2008) Development of an acrylate monolith in a cyclo-olefin copolymer microfluidic device for chip electrochromatography separation. Electrophoresis 29 4948-4955... 

In December 2005 Celanese contracted to sell its loss-making Topas, cyclo-olefin copolymers (COC) operation to a Daicel (55%)/Polyplastics (45%) joint venture. This COC business has approximately 100 employees at production and research facilities in Oberhausen and Frankfurt as well as in the UK. Following the sale, which involves the transfer of all production faciUties and employees to the new joint venture, the headquarters of the business will remain in Germany. Ironically, Mitsui Chemicals announced plans to increase COC production by 600 tonnes per year, citing forecast rising demand of 20% per year for its own Apel COC product. Earlier, Ticona had announced its intention to withdraw from its Pemeas joint venture which had lost US 12 million in 2003. 

Optical Coherence Tomography and Optical Doppler Tomography, Rgure 3 Picture and schematic of a meandering square micro-channel made of cyclo-olefin copolymer. It has a Y branch at the beginning and the dimension of cross-section between confluence and outlet is 600 ixm x 600 pim. The radius of curvature / is 1,7 mm. The red dotted line indicates area of interest... 

Mitsui Chemicals America (2013) APEL Cyclo olefin copolymer (COC). http //www. mitsuichemicals.com/apel prop.htm. Accessed 27 March 2013... 

High performance polymers, such as poly(ether-ether ketone), PEEK, as well as new resins, still coming on stream, such as polyfethylene naphthalate), syndiotactic polystyrene, and cyclo-olefinic copolymers, are offering further challenges to impact modification. 

Metallocenes were developed by Kaminsky and Sinn [42] by developing a new activator. Since then, metallocene technology has progressively undergone changes and has removed the carpet from under ZN catalysts. It is a mature technology now and more than 4 billion dollars has been spent in their development (Table 15). Syndiotactic PP, cyclo-olefin copolymers, and polar monomer incorporation are possible with metallocenes. 

Here, we review (1) research activities in metallocene catalysts, (2) polymerization performances of metallocene catalysts and other single-site catalyst technologies, with examples for polyethylene (PE), cyclo-olefin copolymer (COC), polypropylene (PP), syndiotactic polystyrene (SPS), and cyclo-olefin polymers, and (3) the computational design of metallocene catalysts. 

Metallocene catalysts have a unique feature of polymerizing cyclo-olefin monomers (i.e., cyclopentene, norbornene) selectively without ring opening, and also enable copolymerization with ethylene [47, 48]. Application of metallocene catalysts to cyclo-olefin copolymer (COC) will be discussed in Section IV. 

This hydrophilization of the surfaces through polymer oxidation favors cell adhesion in a similar fashion as that observed following oxygen plasma conditioning. The process is applicable to several polymers (polystyrene and cyclo-olefin copolymers) and adhering cells (Figure 12.29). 

---