Effect of pressure on the cross-polymerization of polyamide containing diacetylene fragments in the backbone

It was established that an increase in the pressure from 0.1 to 400 MPa mar kedly decreases the polymerization rate of diacetylene fragments incorporat ed into macromolecules of a polyamide matrix and leads to the formation of poly(diacetylene) structures with a distorted system of conjugated bonds. I t is concluded that the effect of pressure on the cross-linking (cross-poly merization) reaction in the polyamide studied is determined, in contrast to the process in a monomeric diacetylene crystal, by the mechanical strain e nergy stored in the solid system during rearrangement of the initial diacet ylene aggregates in the course of the reaction. As the applied pressure gro ws, the energy increases due to retarded relaxation in the matrix, thus lea ding to a decrease in the cross-polymerization rate.