Synthesis of soluble and thermally stable polyimides from unsymmetrical diamine containing 2,4,5-triaryl imidazole pendent group

A novel unsymmetrical diamine monomer containing triaryl imidazole pendant group, 4-[4-(4,5-diphenyl-1H-imidazol-2-yl)phenoxy] benzene-1,3-diamine (DAI), was successfully synthesized via aromatic substitution reaction of 1-chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene with 4-(4,5-diphenyl-1H-imidazol-2-yl)phenol, followed by palladium-catalyzed hydrazine reduction. The diamine monomer DAI polymerized with commercial available dianhydrides such as benzophenone tetracarboxylic dianhydride (BTDA), pyromellitic dianhydride (PMDA) and bicyclo[2.2.2]-oct-7-ene-2,3,5,6-tetracarboxylic dianhydride (BCDA) by using two step synthetic methods to obtain corresponding polyimides (PIs). PIs had inherent viscosity of 0.42–0.51 dL/g and exhibited excellent solubility in aprotic polar solvents such as N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc), N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP), N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF), pyridine and methyl sulfoxide (DMSO). PIs showed high glass transition temperatures between 230 and 320 °C, and they were fairly stable up to a temperature above 300 and 450 °C depending on the dianhydride monomer used for the PIs preparation.