Synthesis of poly(arylene ether nitrile ketone)s bearing phthalazinone moiety and their properties

Copoly(arylene ether nitrile ketone)s bearing phthalazinone moiety (PPENKs) were successfully synthesized by the nucleophilic substitution reaction of 4-(4-hydroxylphenyl)-2,3-phthalazin-1(2H)-one (DHPZ), a new bisphenol-like monomer with twisted non-coplanar structure, with various molar proportions of 2,6-dichlorobenzonitrile (DCBN) to 4,4′-difluoro benzophenone (DFK) as coreactants in sulfolane at the present of anhydrous potassium carbonate. In order to obtain high-molecular weight polymers, DHPZ firstly polymerized with low-reactive DCBN for a given time at polymerization temperature after removal of water produced during the reaction, followed by addition of high-reactive DFK to continue the reaction until high-molecular weight polymers were obtained. These obtained copolymers had inherent viscosities between 0.45 and 0.80 dL/g in chloroform at a concentration of 0.5 g dL−1 at 25 °C, and their number-average molecular weights were in the ranges from 2.2 × 104 to 4.7 × 104 with the polydispersity of 2.05–2.70. The structure of typical PPENK5050 was ambiguously confirmed by FT-IR and 1H-NMR. All of the PPENKs were amorphous and soluble in dipolar aprotic solvents, involving N-methyl pyrrolidione, N,N-dimethylacetamide, and chloroform at room temperature. The resulting copolymers showed glass transition temperatures (Tgs) between 267 and 287 °C, and the Tg values of the copolymers were found to increase with increasing DCBN unit content in the polymer. Thermogravimetric studies showed that all of the polymers had 5 % weight loss temperatures ranging from 501 to 511 °C in nitrogen atmosphere. All of the PPENKs could be cast into transparent, strong, and flexible films. They displayed electrical surface resistivity of 1013 Ω, indicating their potential application in electronic field. Physical properties of PPENK5050, which exhibited the best mechanical properties, were measured according to ASTM plastic standards. The results indicated that PPENK5050 possessed excellent thermal properties with the heat deformation temperature of 270 °C, which was 100 °C higher than PEN™ invented and commercialized by Idemitsu Kosan Company Limited. Its dielectric coefficient was 3.45 with the dielectric loss of 0.004 detected at 1 MHz. The other properties of PPENK5050 were equivalent to PEN™. They could be the promising materials as high-performance matrix in the application of polymer matrix composite, high-performance coating, adhesive, and membrane.