Influence of chain microstructure on ethylene–norbornene copolymer film properties

The effects of copolymer composition, copolymer composition distribution, and polar α-olefin incorporation on transparency, refractive index, and hydrophilicity of resultant ethylene–norbornene copolymer films were investigated. It has been found that the transparency is mainly determined by the copolymer composition distribution. The samples having uniform compositions gave better transparency. However, the copolymer composition distribution had little effect on refractive index. The refractive index increased linearly with increasing norbornene content. Furthermore, the incorporation of polar α-olefin with long carbon chain improved refractive index and hydrophilicity of the films. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011