Molecular approach to the development of polyimides with novel structures and properties

The presented work describes a molecular approach to the design and synthesis of polyimides with novel structures and properties. Effort has been focused on the chemistry and application of new AB-type amino anhydride monomer, AX-type amino-imide monomer and unsymmetric dianhydride. If has been demonstrated that an AB-type amino anhydride can exist and be isolated and purified. It is stable at ambient temperatures and yet is polymerizable nf elevated temperatures. It is further shown that this AB monomer forms a self-assembled thin film that can be polymerized in the solid state. AX-type monomers, where X being a masked anhydride group, are generally more stable and easy to obtain. They call be directly used to form polyimides or form a short block that is then incorporated into other polyimide systems. Finally, a new unsymmetric dianhydride monomer has been synthesized which contains a phthalic anhydride and a naphthalic anhydride. As the unsymmetry of this monomer can lend to the formation of different diads in a polymer, the resulting polyimides exhibit much improved solubility while maintaining good thermal stability. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.