Soluble, porous semifluorinated poly(arylene ether) ladder polymers from 2,3,4,5,6-pentafluorobenzonitrile

Publication date: 17 January 2018
Source:Polymer, Volume 135
Author(s): Krishnan Ranganathan, Anbanandam Parthiban
A series of new ladder polymers are synthesized from nucleophilic substitution reactions between tetrafunctional fluorinated monomers derived from 2,3,4,5,6-pentafluorobenzonitrile (PFBN) and various bisphenols such as hydroquinone (HQ), bisphenol-A (BP-A), and 4,4′-(hexafluoroisopropylidene)diphenol (6F-BPA) by a two-step process under mild conditions. The tetrafunctional semi-fluorinated derivatives were obtained by reacting PFBN with nucleophiles such as -S^2-, HQ, BP-A, 6F-BPA in 2:1 mol ratio at room temperature. The tetrafunctional derivatives were subsequently reacted with bisphenols of the same or different type in 1:2 mol ratios respectively to yield soluble porous polymers. The MALDI-TOF MS analysis shows that each repeating unit of polymer chain consists of one unit derived from the tetrafunctional moiety and two bisphenoxy moieties exhibiting ladder structure in the polymer backbone. These polymers exhibit porous nature and the porosity can be fine-tuned by changing the bisphenols at either step.

Graphical abstract

http://ift.tt/2C35bul