Ethylene-propylene copolymers physical properties

Since the excellent work of Moore and Watson (6, who cross-linked natural rubber with t-butylperoxide, most workers have assumed that physical cross-links contribute to the equilibrium elastic properties of cross-linked elastomers. This idea seems to be fully confirmed in work by Graessley and co-workers who used the Langley method on radiation cross-linked polybutadiene (.7) and ethylene-propylene copolymer (8) to study trapped entanglements. Two-network results on 1,2-polybutadiene (9.10) also indicate that the equilibrium elastic contribution from chain entangling at high degrees of cross-linking is quantitatively equal to the pseudoequilibrium rubber plateau modulus (1 1.) of the uncross-linked polymer. 

Among the most commonly utilized synthetic polymers are polyolefins, such as polyethylenes (PEs), polypropylenes (PPs), and ethylene-propylene copolymers (P(E-co-P)s). Despite their simple elemental compositions, consisting of only carbon and hydrogen, it is well known that their physical properties are quite dependent on the microstructural features, such as short- and long-chain branchings, stereoregularities, chemical inversions of monomer enchainment, sequence distributions, etc. ... 

Uncured ethylene-propylene copolymers are soluble in hydrocarbons and have rather poor physical properties useful technological properties are developed only on vulcanization. As mentioned above, the saturated copolymers are vulcanized by heating with peroxides whilst the terpolymers are vulcanized by conventional sulphur systems. The peroxide-cured rubbers have somewhat better heat aging characteristics and resistance to compression set but sulphur-cured rubbers are more convenient to process and allow greater compounding freedom. 

Processes for the manufacture of ethylene-propylene copolymer can produce several distinct types of polymer which, although they may contain similar proportions of the two monomer units, differ appreciably in their physical properties. The differences in these properties lie not only in the ratio of the two monomers present but also, and very importantly, in the detailed microstructure of the two monomer units in the polymer molecule. Ethylene-propylene copolymers may consist of mixtures of the following types of polymer ... 

Copolymers afford a vast range of macroscopic properties that depend intimately on the composition of the material. NMR methods allow an analysis of the details of the composition, as is shown elsewhere in this volume, and also provide a view at the molecular level of the effects of copolymer composition on physical properties. Thus, the ethylene-propylene copolymers constitute a family of materials in which the physical properties depend partly on the over-all proportions of the monomers and partly on the arrangement of the two monomers within the. polymer [id]. Similarly, in copolymers of vinyl chloride and vinylidene chloride, a range of molecular motions is exhibited, depending upon composition. Fig. 11 shows how the temperature of the Tj-minimum and the magnitude of... 

Quantitative and qualitative methods were developed to measure the surface mechanical properties of polymers by atomic force microscopies. They were used to study the effects of molding processes and of viscosity on the surface morphology of polypropylene / (ethylene-propylene) copolymer blends (PP/EP). On compression-molded "physical blends", EP nodules are present at the outermost surface while, on injection-molded "reactor blends", they are covered by a PP layer. Resins with high viscosity ratio between EP and PP present heterogeneous surface elastic properties corresponding to the dispersion of spherical EP nodules below the surface. The low viscosity ratio resins have homogeneous surface elastic properties comparable to those measured above EP nodules on high viscosity ratio resins. This is compatible with a fine dispersion of plate-like shaped EP nodules below the surface... 

In this paper, the nature of the active sites of the primary type of MgCla-supported catalyst was further studied from the microstructure and some physical properties of the ethylene-propylene copolymer obtained by using the catalyst. 

Potentially, this direct fluorination process is a new approach to the synthesis of fluorocarbon polymers. Polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, polyacrylonitrile, polyacrylamide, resor phenol formaldehyde resin, and ethylene propylene copolymer have been fluorinated to produce perf1uorocarbon polymers which are structurally similar to the hydrocarbon starting materials and have physical properties similar to known structurally related fluorocarbon polymers obtained by polymerization of fluorocarbon monomers. High yield of fluorocarbon polymers approaching 100 have been obtained. This direct technique used for fluorination of hydrocarbons and polymers is called the LaMar process and has been previously described in connection with the direct fluorination of Lt ver molecular weight species ". ... 

The effect of these two parameters on mechanical and physical properties of polyethylene and polypropylene are shown in Tables 3.44 and 3.45. The copolymer grade is usually propylene with a little ethylene (5%), wliich considerably improves the impact strength while causing only a slight loss in stiffness. 

The block copolymers shown in both Table V and VI were hydrogenated. The B-lU block produced polyethylene and the polyisoprene block produced ethylene propylene alternating copolymer. The physical properties of this copolymer, composed of crystalline polyethylene block and a soft elastomeric segment made of an EPR block, is tabulated in Table VII. The data in this table illustrate the fact that a diblock of hydrogenated polybutadi ene-polyisoprene gave excellent physical properties. This is a further illustration of the new concept of soft chain interpenetrating the crystalli zable polyethylene chain via chain folding. 

Fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP), copolymer of tetrafluoroethylene (TEE) and hexafluoropropylene (HFP) has physical and chemical properties similar to those of PTFE but differs from it in that FEP can be processed by standard melt-processing techniques. 

Linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE)440-442 is a copolymer of ethylene and a terminal alkene with improved physical properties as compared to LDPE. The practically most important copolymer is made with propylene, but 1-butene, 4-methyl-1-pentene, 1-hexene, and 1-octene are also employed.440 LLDPE is characterized by linear chains without long-chain branches. Short-chain branches result from the terminal alkene comonomer. Copolymer content and distribution as well as branch length introduced permit to control the properties of the copolymer formed. Improvement of certain physical properties (toughness, tensile strength, melt index, elongation characteristics) directly connected to the type of terminal alkene used can be achieved with copolymerization.442... 

With larger amount of propylene a random copolymer known as ethylene-propylene-monomer (EPM) copolymer is formed, which is a useful elastomer with easy processability and improved optical properties.208,449 Copolymerization of ethylene and propylene with a nonconjugated diene [EPDM or ethylene-propylene-diene-monomer copolymer] introduces unsaturation into the polymer structure, allowing the further improvement of physical properties by crosslinking (sulfur vulcanization) 443,450 Only three dienes are employed commercially in EPDM manufacture dicyclopentadiene, 1,4-hexadiene, and the most extensively used 5-ethylidene-2-norbomene. 

Sulfonation is very useful chemical modification of polymer, as it induces high polarity in the polymer changing its chemical as well as physical properties. Sulfonated polymers are also important precursors for ionomer formation [75]. There are reports of sulfonation of ethylene-propylene diene terpolymer (EPDM) [76, 77], polyarylene-ether-sulfone [78], polyaromatic ether ketone [79], polyether ether ketone (PEEK) [80], styrene-ethylene-butylene-styrene block copolymer, (SEBS) [81]. Poly [bis(3-methyl phenoxy) phosphozene] [82], Sulfonated polymers show a distinct peak at 1176 cm"1 due to stretching vibration of 0=S=0 in the -S03H group. Another peak appears at 881 cm 1 due to stretching vibration of S-OH bond. However, the position of different vibrational bands due to sulfonation depends on the nature of the cations as well as types of solvents [75, 76]. 

The mechanical and thermal properties of a range of poly(ethylene)/po-ly(ethylene propylene) (PE/PEP) copolymers with different architectures have been compared [2]. The tensile stress-strain properties of PE-PEP-PE and PEP-PE-PEP triblocks and a PE-PEP diblock are similar to each other at high PE content. This is because the mechanical properties are determined predominantly by the behaviour of the more continuous PE phase. For lower PE contents there are major differences in the mechanical properties of polymers with different architectures, that form a cubic-packed sphere phase. PE-PEP-PE triblocks were found to be thermoplastic elastomers, whereas PEP-PE-PEP triblocks behaved like particulate filled rubber. The difference was proposed to result from bridging of PE domains across spheres in PE-PEP-PE triblocks, which acted as physical crosslinks due to anchorage of the PE blocks in the semicrystalline domains. No such arrangement is possible for the PEP-PE-PEP or PE-PEP copolymers [2]. 

These materials can be considered linear copolymers of ethylene and propylene or precisely methyl-branched polyethylene. In addition, copolymerizations of the methyl-containing monomers with 1,9-decadierie yield polymers with lower propylene content [50]. These materials are of great interest to the polyolefin community, especially in the physical understanding of the effects of branching on physical properties. Polyethylenes with a variety of main chain functionality have also been synthesized and analyzed [51-54]. 

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