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Fluorinated polymers are attractive due to their special thermal, surface, gas separation, and other properties. In this study, new diblock, multiblock, and random copolymers of cyclooctene with two fluorinated norbornenes, 5-perfluorobutyl-2-norbornene and N-pentafluorophenyl-exo-endo-norbornene-5,6-dicarboximide, are synthesized by ring-opening metathesis copolymerization and macromolecular cross-metathesis in the presence of the first- to third-generation Grubbs’ Ru-catalysts. Their thermal, surface, bulk, and solution characteristics are investigated and compared using differential scanning calorimetry, water contact angle measurements, gas permeation, and light scattering, respectively. It is demonstrated that they are correlated with the chain structure of the copolymers. The properties of multiblock copolymers are generally closer to those of diblock copolymers than of random ones, which can be explained by the presence of long blocks capable of self-organization. In particular, diblock and multiblock fluorine-imide-containing copolymers show a tendency to form micelles in chloroform solutions well below the overlap concentration. The results obtained may be of interest to a wide range of researchers involved in the design of functional copolymers.

Commercial metathesis polynorbornene is used for the fabrication of high-damping coatings and bulk materials that dissipate vibration and impact energies. Functionalization of this non-polar polymer can improve its adhesive, gas barrier, and other properties, thereby potentially expanding its application area. With this aim, the post-modification of polynorbornene was carried out by inserting ethylene–vinyl acetate–vinyl alcohol blocks into its backbone via the cross-metathesis of polynorbornene with poly(5-acetoxy-1-octenylene) and subsequent deacetylation and hydrogenation of the obtained multiblock copolymers. For the first time, epoxy groups were introduced into the main chains of these copolymers, followed by the oxirane ring opening reaction. The influence of post-modification on the thermal, gas separation, and mechanical properties of the new copolymers was studied. It was shown that the gas permeability of the copolymer significantly depends on its composition, as well as on the amounts of hydroxyl and epoxy groups. The developed methods efficiently improve the barrier properties, reducing the oxygen permeability by 15–33 times in comparison with polynorbornene. The obtained results are promising for various applications and can be extended to a broader family of polydienes and other polymers containing backbone double bonds.