Hossein Behniafar, Mohsen Sedaghatdoost
J Fluorine Chem 132, 276–284 (2011)
Publication year: 2011
A new class of highly fluorinated aromatic poly(ether-amide)s was prepared through triphenyl phosphite-activated polycondensation of 2,2′-bis(3,4,5-trifluorophenyl)-4,4′-diaminodiphenyl ether (FPAPE) and four dicarboxylic acid comonomers. All the resulting polymers were thoroughly characterized by FT-IR, UV, and NMR spectroscopic methods. The effects of the fluorine atoms directly linked to the lateral phenyl rings as well as fluoro-containing phenyl groups attached to the macromolecular chains on some properties of the polymers were investigated by comparing with poly(ether-amide)s prepared from 4,40-oxydianiline (4,4′-ODA) and 2,2′-diphenyl-4,4′-iaminodiphenyl ether (PAPE). The FPAPE-derived polymers exhibited excellent solubility in a variety of organic solvents. Results obtained from X-ray studies showed that the presence of the bulky fluoro-containing phenyl groups attached to the chains disrupts their structural order in a great amount, and leads to a decrease in crystallinity extent of the macromolecules. Furthermore, the highly fluorinated polymeric chains showed a significant enhancement in organo-solubility, heat-stability and Tg values when compared to their non-fluorinated counterparts.