Ethylene-1-octene

Natural mbber comes generally from southeast Asia. Synthetic mbbers are produced from monomers obtained from the cracking and refining of petroleum (qv). The most common monomers are styrene, butadiene, isobutylene, isoprene, ethylene, propylene, and acrylonitrile. There are numerous others for specialty elastomers which include acryUcs, chlorosulfonated polyethylene, chlorinated polyethylene, epichlorohydrin, ethylene—acryUc, ethylene octene mbber, ethylene—propylene mbber, fluoroelastomers, polynorbomene, polysulftdes, siUcone, thermoplastic elastomers, urethanes, and ethylene—vinyl acetate. 

LLDPE materials are now available in a range of densities from around 0.900 g/cm for VLDPE materials to 0.935 g/cm for ethylene-octene copolymers. The bulk of materials are of density approx. 0.920 g/cm using butene in particular as the comonomer. 

Godail and Packham [77,78] have applied these ideas to the adhesion of ethylene-octene copolymers laminated to polypropylene. Variations in adhesion energy found with different laminating temperatures were interpreted in terms of... 

Godail, L. and Packham, D.E., Adhesion of ethylene-octene copolymers to polypropylene interfacial structure and mechanical properties. J. Adhes. Sci. Technol., 15, 1285-1304 (2001). 

ENGAGE is an ethylene-octene copolymer. Ray and Bhowmick [70] have prepared nanocomposites based on this copolymer. In this study, the nanoclay was modified in situ by polymerization of acrylate monomer inside the gallery gap of nanoclay. ENGAGE was then intercalated inside the increased gallery gap of the modified nanoclay. The nanocomposites prepared by this method have improved mechanical properties compared to that of the conventional counterparts. Preparation and properties of organically modified nanoclay and its nanocomposites with ethylene-octene copolymer were reported by Maiti et al. [71]. Excellent improvement in mechanical properties and storage modulus was noticed by the workers. The results were explained with the help of morphology, dispersion of the nanofiller, and its interaction with the mbber. 

A new TPV based on PP matrix in which a metallocene-type ethylene-octene (EO) copolymer is in dispersed phase has been synthesized and characterized by Fritz et al. [64]. The EO copolymers... 

Clay hllers were surface modihed with TMPTA or triethoxyvinyl silane (TEVS) followed by EB irradiation by Ray and Bhowmick [394]. Both the untreated and treated fillers were incorporated in an ethylene-octene copolymer. Mechanical, dynamic mechanical, and rheological properties of the EB-cured unfilled and filled composites were studied and a significant improvement in tensile strength, elongation at break, modulus, and tear strength was observed in the case of surface-treated clay-filled vulcanizates. Dynamic mechanical studies conducted on these systems support the above findings. 

Figure 19 (a) Peak melting temperature as a function of the branch content in ethylene-octene copolymers (labelled -O, and symbol —B (symbol, ) and -P (symbol, A) are for ethylene-butene and ethylene-propylene copolymers, respectively) and obtained from homogeneous metallocene catalysts show a linear profile, (b) Ziegler-Natta ethylene-octene copolymers do not show a linear relationship between peak melting point and branch content [125]. Reproduced from Kim and Phillips [125]. Reprinted with permission of John Wiley Sons, Inc. 

The previous sections in this chapter have tried to stress upon the significance of distribution of sequence lengths in polyethylene-based copolymers. The sequence length of interest in a system of ethylene-octene copolymers would be the number of methylene units before a hexyl branch point. As was discussed, this parameter has a greater impact on the crystallization behavior of these polymers than any other structural feature like branch content, or the comonomer fraction. The importance of sequence length distributions is not just limited to crystallization behavior, but also determines the conformational,... 

The molecular weight distribution of a polymer produced with a chain shuttling catalyst/CSA system is highly dependent on reaction conditions. The extent of reversibility with the catalyst/CSA pairs was therefore further explored through a series of polymerizations over a range of monomer conversions (i.e., yield). A representative example from this secondary screening process is described below for precatalyst 17. Several members from this well-studied bis(phenoxyimine)-based catalyst family [39] were identified as poor incorporators in the primary screen. A series of ethylene/octene copolymerizations using 17 was performed across a... 

Experiments were conducted with a dual catalyst chain shuttling system in a continuous solution polymerization reactor. A series of ethylene-octene copolymers of similar melt index were produced with a composition of ca. 30% (by weight) hard and 70% soft blocks. The level of DEZ was systematically varied to study the effects of CSA ratio on polymer microstructure. 

This molecular weight response clearly indicates that chain-shuttled ethylene-octene block copolymers, rather than blends, are formed upon introduction of DEZ. The Mn can also be used in conjunction with the DEZ feed and polymerization rate to calculate the number of chains produced per Zn molecule. The low DEZ level of sample 4 results in the production of ca. 12 chains/Zn. However, the reaction is practically stoichiometric at higher DEZ (no H2), with production of sample 6 resulting in 1.9 chains/Zn (or ca. one chain per Zn-alkyl moiety). This example indicates that nearly every polymer chain exited the reactor bound to the CSA, with very little chain termination, demonstrating the efficiency of the chain shuttling reaction. 

Melting point alone cannot uniquely identify an OBC. For example, blends of high and low density polyolefins also exhibit an elevated melting point at equivalent density. Sample 3 in Fig. 17 (small circle) is a 70 30 physical blend of 0.86 and 0.94 g cm-3 ethylene-octene copolymers, and the melting point is similar to the OBCs. Physical blends of polymers of such disparate densities are not phase-continuous, however, and segregate into domains of the high and low density polymers. Figure 18 reveals differences in appearance of pressed plaques of the polymer samples... 

Fig. 18 Several samples of ethylene-octene copolymers having similar comonomer content, crystallinity, and melt index. Sample 3 is a physical blend of high and low density copolymers. Samples 4-6 are OBCs prepared with several different levels of chain shuttling agent. Reproduced by permission from [10]...

Fig. 19 Polarized optical micrographs of several polymers. From top left to lower right, a random ethylene-octene copolymer high density polyethylene samples 3-6...

Fig. 22 Storage modulus vs. temperature for statistically random ethylene-octene and propylene-ethylene copolymers compared to an ethylene-octene OBC...

Flandin L, Hiltner A, Baer E. Interrelationships between electrical and mechanical properties of a carbon black-filled ethylene-octene elastomer. Polymer. 2001 Jan 42(2) 827-38. 

The effect of blending LDPE with EVA or a styrene-isoprene block copolymer was investigated (178). The properties (thermal expansion coefficient. Young s modulus, thermal conductivity) of the foamed blends usually lie between the limits of the foamed constituents, although the relationship between property and blend content is not always linear. The reasons must he in the microstructure most polymer pairs are immiscible, but some such as PS/polyphenylene oxide (PPO) are miscible. Eor the immiscible blends, the majority phase tends to be continuous, but the form of the minor phase can vary. Blends of EVA and metallocene catalysed ethylene-octene copolymer have different morphologies depending on the EVA content (5). With 25% EVA, the EVA phase appears as fine spherical inclusions in the LDPE matrix. The results of these experiments on polymer films will apply to foams made from the same polymers. 

Polymer Engineering and Science 42, No.6, June 2002, p. 1274-85 DEFORMATION AND ENERGY ABSORPTION CHARACTERISTICS OF MICROCELLULAR ETHYLENE-OCTENE COPOLYMER VULCANIZATES Nayak N C Tripathy D K Indian Institute of Technology... 

An investigation is reported of the dynamic mechanical response of aluminium silicate filled closed cell microcellular ethylene-octene copolymer (Engage) vulcanisates. The effect of blowing agent, frequency and temperature on dynamic mechanical properties is studied, and the strain-dependent dynamic mechanical properties of microcellular Engage are also investigated. 25 refs. INDIA... 

Figure 10.15 The decay of the transverse magnetisation (points) for ethylene-octene copolymer at different temperatures [136]. The decay was measured using the solid-echo pulse sequence. The solid lines represent the result of a least-squares adjustment of the decay using a linear combination of Weibull and exponential functions. The dotted lines represent the relaxation component with a long decay time. In the experiments the sample was heated from room temperature to 343 K (70 °C)...

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