A study on the N-allylation reaction of aromatic polyamides. 1. Poly(p-phenylene terephthalamide)

Aromatic polyamides represent an important class of polymeric materials fro m both the academic and the industrial points of view. Unfortunately, becau se of strong intermolecular interactions mainly due to hydrogen bonding, th eir solubility in common organic solvents is often extremely poor. In most cases, this drawback does not allow aramide molecular characterization. In the present work, the above difficulties have been overcome by a functional ization reaction leading to N-allyl derivatives of the parent aramide, that are easily soluble in organic solvents. Poly(p-phenylene terephthalamide) has been chosen as the reference aramide to be functionalized, on the basis of its industrial relevance as well as its insolubility in all organic med ia. Molar mass distribution of its N-allylated derivative has been obtained by SEC, using chloroform + 0.3% acetic acid as mobile phase, thus allowing full molecular characterization of the parent polymer.