Novel thermally stable and chiral poly(amide-imide)s bearing from N,N′-(4,4′-diphthaloyl)-bis-l-isoleucine diacid: Synthesis and characterization

Novel optically active aromatic poly(amide-imide)s (PAIs) were prepared from newly synthesized N,N′-(4,4′-diphthaloyl)-bis-l-isoleucine diacid (3) via polycondensation with various diamines. The diacid was synthesized by the condensation reaction of 3,3′,4,4′-biphenyltetracarboxylic dianhydride (1) with l-isoleucine (2) in a mixture of acetic acid and pyridine (3:2 v/v). All the polymers were obtained in quantitative yields with inherent viscosities of 0.20-0.43 dL g−1. All the polymers were highly organosoluble in solvents like N-methyl-2-pyrrolidinone (NMP), N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc), N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF), dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), tetrahydrofuran, γ-butyrolactone, cyclohexanone and chloroform at room temperature or upon heating. These poly(amide-imide)s had glass transition temperatures between 198 and 231 °C, and their 10% weight-loss temperatures were ranging from 368 to 398 °C and 353 to 375 °C under nitrogen and air, respectively. The polyimide films had tensile strengths in the range of 63-88 MPa and tensile moduli in the range of 0.8-1.4 GPa. These poly(amide-imide)s possessed chiral properties and the specific rotations were in the range of −3.10° to −72.92°.