Preparation and dielectric properties of fullerene-doped polyarylene ether nitrile film

In order to obtain polymer films with low dielectric constant (a parts per thousand currency sign2.0) and enhanced mechanical strength, fullerene-doped polyarylene ether nitrile (PEN) film was designed and prepared according to the following step. At first, fullerene and PEN were dissolved in toluene and N-methyl pyrrolidone, respectively, and the solutions were mixed together. The films were prepared by solution casting/solvent evaporation method on glass sheet. The morphology and thermal analysis of the films were characterized by visual & SEM observation and DSC & TGA test, respectively. The mechanical properties and dielectric properties of the films were also measured. The results showed that the dispersion of fullerene was largely dependent on the evaporation methods of the solvents. The glass transition temperature (Tg) and thermal decomposition temperature (Td) of PEN films were improved with the addition of fullerene. The dielectric constant sharply decreased from 4.0 to about 2.0 with the addition of fullerene. At the same time, the mechanical properties were improved, which might be caused by the physical entanglement of PEN chains with fullerenes. The lowest epsilon value (1.75 at 1 MHz) and the highest tensile strength (142.2 Mpa) were simultaneously obtained in samples containing 3 wt% fullerenes, which indicated it's the optimal content of fullerene.