Highly soluble phenylethynyl terminated oligoimides derived from 5(6)-amino-1-(4-aminophenyl)-1,3,3-trimethylindane, 4,4′-oxydianiline and mixed thioetherdiphthalic anhydride isomers

Novel highly soluble phenylethynyl-endcapped oligoimides derived from mixed thioetherdiphthalic anhydride isomers ( m -TDPA) and 5(6)-amino-1-(4-aminophenyl)-1,3,3-trimethylindane (DAPI), 4,4′-oxydianiline (4,4’-ODA) with 4-phenylethynylphthalic anhydride (PEPA) as a reactive endcapping agent were synthesized. The calculated molecular weights of all the oligoimides were 2500 g·mol −1 .The effect of the mole ratio of DAPI/4,4’-ODA on solubility and melt viscosity of oligoimides as well as the thermal and mechanical properties of cured polyimide films was investigated. Experimental results indicated that DAPI greatly improved the solubility (>30 wt.%) of the oligoimides in low boiling points solvents when the content of DAPI was more than 10 mol% per total diamine. All the oligoimides exhibited very good processability with minimum melt viscosity lower than 60 Pa·s at about 330 °C. Tough and brown films were obtained after thermally cured at 370 °C for 1 h and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) showed that glass transition temperatures of the cured films increased up to 340 °C with the increasing content of DAPI. However, the thermal stability and mechanical properties decreased with the increase of DAPI content. The temperature of 5% weight loss was higher than 470 °C in both air and N 2 atmosphere obtained by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). And the tensile strengths of the cured films were about 60 MPa.