Synthesis of Cardo Based Poly(arylene ether)s for Flexible Plastic Substrates and Their Properties

Abstract

New poly(arylene ether)s (PAEs) with both transparency and heat-resistance were prepared by a polycondensation of FBPODS, an ordered-sequence aromatic dihalide, and cardo typed aromatic diols containing fluorene and/or adamantane moiety and also non-cardo typed 1,5-naphthalene diol. The resulting polymers had their glass transition temperatures ranged from 202 to 247 degrees C. Based on TGA data, they exhibited excellent thermal stabilities, showing 5% weight loss at 434-487 degrees C. They had low thermal expansion coefficients of 58-59 ppm at temperature range of 50-200 degrees C as well as good mechanical properties with moduli of 1757-2143 MPa. The optical transmittance for the PAE films was over 70% at 550 nm, except for the PAE that contains naphthalene moiety (30% at 550 nm). They also showed water uptake of about 0.68% regardless of their chemical compositions. Therefore, the newly developed PAEs show strong potential as plastic substrates for flexible devices for display, solar cell and e-paper.