The high-performance fluorinated polymers have been receiving considerable
attention as interesting advanced materials. The incorporation of fluorine
atoms into polymer chains leads to polymers with increased solubility, flam
e resistance, thermal stability and glass transition temperature while also
leading to decreased color crystallinity, dielectric constant and moisture
absorption. 2,3,4,5,6-Pentafluorobenzoic acid (PFBA) is a valuable interme
diate for pharmaceuticals, pesticides, perfumes, cosmetics and so on, and i
t is available as a commercial product. However, the polymers derived from
PFBA have not been reported so far. In this paper, we report the synthesis
and characterization of novel fluorinated poly(aryl ether ketone)s (PEKs) c
ontaining 2,3,5,6-tetrafluoro-1,4-phenylene moieties derived from PFBA. Nov
el fluorinated PEKs are prepared from PFBA by aromatic nucleophilic substit
ution reaction, of which M-n values range from 2.28 x 10(4) to 1.04 x 10(5)
. They have all para connected linear structures. The aromatic fluorine of
the para position to the carbonyl groups of monomers is preferentially subs
tituted by phenoxide and this para orientation is mainly attributed to the
steric effect rather than pi -electron density. The obtained PEKs except 8F
-PEKEK (BP) show excellent solubilities in common solvents and can be cast
into tough transparent films. They also exhibit high glass transition tempe
ratures depending on the structures and outstanding thermal stabilities. Fu
rthermore, these fluorine-containing PEKs exhibit low dielectric constants
from 2.87 to 3.52 at I MHz. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.