Polyimides (PIs) are expected as high performance materials because of their excellent thermal, mechanical and dielectric properties. However, it has not been achieved yet formation of the well-ordered nanostructures and control of morphologies. Because PIs are generally synthesized through polycondensation which can hardly control their primary structures such as molecular weights and polydispersities, which are different from general vinyl polymers synthesized through chain polymerization. This can lead the difficulty to synthesize the corresponding block copolymers. Here, we propose a new approach for formation of nanostructures and control of morphologies of PIs by using soft templates that guide a cooperative self-assembly between PIs and templating block copolymers. We first attempted to prepare PI precursor films by mixing of polyamic acids and a variety of templating block copolymers such as poly(ethylene oxide)-b-poly(propylene oxide)-b-poly(ethylene oxide) and polystyrene-b-poly(2-vinylpyridine). Then the imidization was carried out by heating at 100 �C for 12 hours. SAXS and TEM characterization confirmed that the resulting PI films form well-ordered microphase-separated nanostructures with cubic and cylinder morphologies. The domain spacings are around 14 nm and matrices are PIs. Subsequent thermal decomposition of the PI films was also performed to prepare high periodic mesoporous PI films.

High periodic mesoporous polyimide films utilizing block copolymers

247th National Meeting (2014)

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