Modification of ethylene-norbornene copolymer by Gamma irradiation

The possibility of modifying polyethylene and many other polymers with high energy radiation has led to many useful applications. Due to their new combination of properties and the shortage of experimental data, the radiolysis of a new class of materials, cyclo-olefin copolymers (COC), polymerised from norbornene and ethylene using metallocene catalysts, is of great interest to the study of radiation chemistry and the physics of polymeric systems. Ethylenenorbornene copolymer, pristine and containing an antioxidant were subjected to gamma irradiation in the presence of air and in water. The irradiated copolymer was studied using IR and UV-vis spectrophotometric analysis. The radiation-induced changes in the molecular structure were correlated to changes in the glass transition temperature measured by the DSC method.