Dependence of zero-shear viscosity and steady-state compliance on molecular weight between entanglements for ethylene–cycloolefin copolymers

Dynamic viscoelastic properties of a series of cyclic olefin copolymers have been investigated. The specimens differ in total molecular weight as well as molecular weight between entanglements. The angular frequency (ω) dependence curves of dynamic storage and loss moduli (G′ and G″, respectively) of the specimens have shown that G′ ∝ ω2 and G″ ∝ ω in the terminal region, and a plateau region at high ω. On the basis of the experimental results, the dependence of total molecular weight as well as molecular weight between entanglements has been examined for zero-shear viscosity (η0) and steady-state compliance (Je). It is shown that η 0 ∝ M e 1.5 ( M w / M e ) 3.5 for the melts of the copolymers in the entangled regime, Mw being the weight-average molecular weight and Me the molecular weight between entanglements. The steady-state compliance Je for the melts scales with Me and Mw as J e ∝ M e 0.5 ( M w / M e ) 0 .