Synthesis of aromatic poly(urea‐imide) with heterocyclic side‐chain structure

The poly(urea‐imide) copolymers with inherent viscosity of 0.81–1.08 dL/g were synthesized by reacting aryl ether diamine or its polyurea prepolymer with various diisocyanate‐terminated polyimide prepolymers. The aryl ether diamine was obtained by first nucleophilic substitution of phenolphthalein with p ‐chloronitrobenzene in the presence of anhydrous potassium carbonate to form a dinitro aryl ether, and then further hydrogenated to diamine. The polyimide prepolymers were prepared by using 4,4′‐diphenylmethane diisocyanate to react with pyromellitic dianhydride, 3,3′,4,4′‐benzophenonetetracarboxylic dianhydride, or 3,3′,4,4′‐sulfonyldiphthalic anhydride by using the direct one‐pot method to improve their solubility, but without sacrificing thermal property. These copolymers are amorphous and readily soluble in a wide range of organic solvents such as N ‐methyl‐2‐pyrrolidone, dimethylimidazole, N , N ‐dimethylacetamide, dimethyl sulfoxide, N , N ‐dimethylformamide, m ‐cresol, and sulfolane. All the poly(urea‐imides) have glass transition temperatures in the range of 205–240°C and show a 10 wt % loss at 326–352°C in nitrogen and 324–350°C in air. The tensile strength, elongation at break, and initial modulus of these copolymer films range from 42 to 79 MPa, 5 to 16%, and 1.23 to 2.02 GPa, respectively. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 74: 1719–1730, 1999