TOPAS™ cyclic olefin copolymers

General Description Ticona Topas are amorphous, glass-clear copolymers of ethylene and norbomene. Ticona Topas cyclic olefin copolymers (COC) form strikingly clear films. When blended with polyethylene (PE), they enhance the stiffness and heat-seal behavior of blown and cast films and offer high moisture barrier, clarity, and stiflfiiess. The Tieona Topas product line features several grades differentiated by heat deflection temperatures ranging from 80° to 18o°c.[ioi5]... 

Product Information, Topas Cyclic Olefin Copolymer, Tieona 2000, A business of Celanese AG. 

TOPAS cyclic olefin copolymer. Topas Advanced Polymers 2006. 

In our laboratory, polymer CE microchips in combination with EC detection have been successfully used as miniaturised devices for determination of clinically important analytes. As commented in Section 34.1.2, poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) is one of the most used polymers for manufacturing microchips. Recently, cyclic olefin copolymers (COCs) such as Topas (thermoplastic olefin polymer of amorphous... 

Early transition metal catalysts such as vanadium complexes and zirconocenes effectively copolymerize ethene with norbornene [81]. This capabihty eventually led to the commercial development of the APEL and TOPAS line of cyclic olefin copolymers by Mitsui and Ticona (formerly Hoechst), respectively [82]. Interest in this class of polymers is due to its high glass transition temperatures and transparency that is imparted by the norbornene component. 

COC (cyclic olefin copolymer which includes Resin CZ from Daikyo Seiko and Topas from Ticona Mitsui) use for the former has already been found for vials for expensive lyophilised biotechnology products... 

Cyclic olefin copolymers (COC) are copolymers of ethylene and norbornene (2,2,1 bicycloheptane), made using metallocene catalysts. They are amorphous polymers with excellent clarity, low density, high strength, and stiffness. Currently the major manufacturer is Ticona, which sells them under the trade name Topas. 

Table 31 -01. Physical Properties of Ticona Topas 8007 Cyclic Olefin Copolymer (COC)...

The first group consists of amorphous thermoplastic engineering polymers. These are cyclic olefin polymers (COP) or cyclic olefin copolymers (COC) with ethylene. They were commercialized, for example, as Zeonex (in 1991) and Zeonar (by Zeon), as Topas (Polyplastics), Apel (Mitsui), and Alton (JSR). Topas was originally part of Ticona, before it was sold to Daicel in 2005. A Topas plant with a capacity of 30,000 tpa started up in Oberhausen, Germany, in September 2000. Until that time, world capacity from 4 pilot-scale plants was around 10,000 tpa. 

Copolymers made from a-olefins and cyclic olefins have been known for nearly 50 years (1,2). Ethylene-norbomene (Et-Nb) copoljrmers are specifically described in the patent bterature as long ago as 1973 (3), with further patent filings since then (4-6). The general class of thermoplastic cyclic olefin copolymers (COCs) includes products from Mitsui Chemicals (7), Japan Synthetic Rubber (8), Nippon Zeon (9), and Ticona (10). Some of these products are manufactured by ring-opening metathesis and others by addition polymerization. Only the COCs made by Ticona, a division of Celanese AG, under the trademark Topas, are Et Nb copolymers. These products, for which Ticona started up a 30,000-t plant in September 2000 (11), are described in this article. 

Ethylene/norbornene copolymers are presently available commercially from TOPAS Advanced Polymers, Inc., a company formed in 2006 after early development efforts by Hoechst AG and Mitsui Petrochemical. Hoechst initiated the commercialization of this cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) in 1990, and Mitsui Petrochemical became involved in evaluating the manufacture of these copolymers in a continuous pilot-scale operation in 1993. TOPAS Advanced Polymers, Inc., is a joint venture of Daicel Chemical Industries Ltd., and Polyplastics Co., Ltd., with headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, and a United States subsidiary in Florence, Kentucky. The structure of this copolymer is shown in Figure 4.26. 

Figure 4.26 Structure of cyclic olefin copolymer. Data from www.topas.com.

COC SBS BCP Cyclic olefin copolymer (Topas Ticona) effectively impact modified with styrene-butadiene-styrene ABA block copolymer retains optical transparency 48... 

Ticona s COC (cyclic olefin copolymer) (Topas ) has been noted to significantly reduce the part warpage of fiberglass filled polypropylene. Commercial utility in automotive apphcations has been noted. 

Cyclic olefin copolymers (COC) are an amorphous glass clear copolymer of ethylene and norbomene, made via proprietary metallocene catalysts. The material was developed by Ticona GmbH and is now being marketed under the Topas trade name. 

COC is a relatively new commercial polymer. Four commercial sources are available under the TOPAS , ApeF, Zeonor and Zeonex , and Arton product names, supplied by Topas Advanced Polymers, Mitsui Chemicals, Zeon Chemical and Japan Synthrtic Rubber. COC is a random copolymer of ethylene and norbomene. Norbomene is synthesized via Diels-Alder reaction of ethylene and cylopentadiene. Polymerization of ethylene and norbomene using metallocene catalysts produces cyclic olefin copolymer. Large bulky cyclic rings randomly distributed in a polyethylene backbone prevent crystallization of the ethylene, creating an amorphous morphology. 

T. Nilsen et al. Nanoimprint lithography in the cyclic olefin copolymer, Topas, a highly ultraviolet-transparent and chemically resistant thermoplast, J. Vac. ScL Technol, 22 4. pp. 1770-1775, (2004)... 

The possibility of controlling the interanular wedge angle of ansa-metallocene catalysts and their resulting capability to also enchain olefins, which are otherwise not readily amenable to insertion polymerization, allows the productirMi of copolymers of ethene with cyclic olefins, in particular with norbomene or its substituted derivatives. Based on first observations in this regard [73, 74], ethene/ norbomene copolymers, e.g. with alternating microstmctures [75-77] and with excellent optical and barrier properties, are now commercially produced with ansa-metallocene catalysts by Topas Advanced Polymers (TOPAS ) [78] and by Mitsui Chemical (Apel) [79]. 

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