Cationic polymerisation of 1,4-diisopropenyl benzene, 1,4-(2-chloro-is
opropyl)benzene and related compounds yields soluble polymers with rep
eating units of indan. High performance polymers with indan units are
available via nucleophilic substitution of halogenated aromatic monome
rs containing a central indan element, which are synthesized from 1,1,
3-trimethyl-3-phenylindan via Friedel-Crafts-reaction with correspondi
ng halogenated acyl- and sulfonyl chlorides.