SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF A FLUORINATED POLY(IMIDE SILOXANE) COPOLYMER - A STUDY OF PHYSICAL-PROPERTIES AND MORPHOLOGY

Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) , and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) have been used to charact erize the physical properties and morphology of a series of poly(imide -siloxane) copolymers. These copolymers based on DAPI-6F contain eithe r a short bis(aminopropyl) terminated siloxane monomer or oligomer. Th e results show that the copolymers containing the oligomeric segments are phase separated. The SAXS results indicate that the domain size of the poly(dimethylsiloxane) segment is independent of the siloxane-to- imide ratio. However, the DMA results show that the high temperature m aximum in E'', herein defined as T(g) of the imide phase, decreases wi th an increasing amount of the oligomeric siloxane. It is suggested th at the depression of T(g) may be the result of lowering of the molecul ar weight of the imide segments.