Molecular approach to the development of polyimides with novel structures and properties

The presented work describes a molecular approach to the design and synthes is of polyimides with novel structures and properties. Effort has been focu sed on the chemistry and application of new AB-type amino anhydride monomer , AX-type amino-imide monomer and unsymmetric dianhydride. If has been demo nstrated that an AB-type amino anhydride can exist and be isolated and puri fied. It is stable at ambient temperatures and yet is polymerizable nf elev ated temperatures. It is further shown that this AB monomer forms a self-as sembled thin film that can be polymerized in the solid state. AX-type monom ers, where X being a masked anhydride group, are generally more stable and easy to obtain. They call be directly used to form polyimides or form a sho rt block that is then incorporated into other polyimide systems. Finally, a new unsymmetric dianhydride monomer has been synthesized which contains a phthalic anhydride and a naphthalic anhydride. As the unsymmetry of this mo nomer can lend to the formation of different diads in a polymer, the result ing polyimides exhibit much improved solubility while maintaining good ther mal stability. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.