Synthesis and characterization of degradable polyimides from p-phenylenedioxybis(5-amino-2-pyridine)

Polyimides are widely used in electronic, semiconductor industry, however, with the wide application, the degradation of the polymer has become a serious problem people have to face. In this work, a series of new fast degradable polyimides were synthesized from diamine p-phenylenedioxybis(5-amino-2-pyridine) with various commercially available aromatic dianhydrides via a conventional two-stage process. The resulting polyimides could degrade at room temperature under a certain condition, and we proposed a degradation mechanism by analyzing the degradation products. Compared with the traditional method, here, we provided a facile and effective method for polyimide degradation. The result suggested that introducing a phenyl-2-pyridyl ether structure into polymer chains may become a class of new method for polymer degradation.