Synthesis and characterization of soluble copoly(ether ketone)s containing double bonds

A series of copoly(ether ketone)s containing double bonds along the polymer chains were synthesized from the condensation polymerization of hydroquinone with 4,4'-difluorobenzophenone and 4,5-bis(4-fluorobenzoyl)-1-methylcyclohexene in sulfolane containing anhydrous potassium carbonate. The presence of methylcyclohexene in the polymer chains resulted in an improvement in the solubility of poly(ether ketone)s in organic solvents such as chloroform, chlorobenzene, and sulfolane. As a result, the conditions for synthesizing these polymers were much milder than those for poly(ether ether ketone). The new copoly(ether ketone)s also showed good tensile properties and reasonable thermal stability. New polyethers containing pyrazine unites were obtained from the cyclization reaction of these copoly(ether ketone)s with hydrazine. The hydrazine cycloderivatives led to an increase in the glass-transition temperatures and a decrease in solubility in organic solvents. (C) 2002 Government of Canada. Exclusive worldwide publication rights in the article have been transferred to Wiley Periodicals, Inc.