Random copolymer membrane coated PBO fibers with significantly improved interfacial adhesion for PBO fibers/cyanate ester composites

Poly(p-phenylene-2,6-benzobisoxazole)(PBO) fibers possess excellent dielectric, mechanical properties and heat resistance. However, the surface of PBO fibers is smooth and highly chemical inert, resulting in poor interfacial compatibility to polymer matrix, which severely limits its wider application in high-performance fiber-reinforced resin matrix composites. In this work, random copolymers(P(S-co-BCB-co-MMA)) containing benzocyclobutene in the side-chain were synthesized by reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer(RAFT) polymerization, which were then utilized to form dense random copolymer membrane on the surface of PBO fibers by thermally cross-linking at 250 °C(PBO@P fibers). Four kinds of synthesized P(S-co-BCB-co-MMA) with different number-average molar mass(Mn) were well controlled and possessed narrow dispersity.When the Mnwas 32300, the surface roughness of PBO@P fibers was increased from 11 nm(PBO fibers) to 39 nm. In addition, PBO@P fibers presented the optimal interfacial compatibility with bisphenol A cyanate(BADCy) resins. And the single fiber pull-out strength of PBO@P fibers/BADCy micro-composites was 4.5 MPa, increasing by 45.2% in comparison with that of PBO fibers/BADCy micro-composites(3.1 MPa). Meantime, PBO@P fibers still retained excellent tensile strength(about 5.1 GPa). Overall, this work illustrates a simple and efficient surface functionalization method, which would provide a strong theoretical basis and technical support for controlling the surface structure & chemistry of inert substrates.

PEN/BADCy Interlayer Dielectric Films with Tunable Microstructures via an Assist of Temperature for Enhanced Frequency Stability

Low dielectric in terlayer films have become an important element to ensure the development of the microelectr onics industry.A kind of flexible interlayer dielectrics,polyarylene ether nitrile/bisphenol A cyanate ester(PEN/BADCy)film,with good thermal stability and low frequency dependence,has been developed by solution casting method.Herein,materials were designed to incorporate bisphenol A cyanate ester as a part of blend,contributing to the frequency stability and structural integrity.The morphological study combined with electron microscopy revealed the uniform and flexible microstructure information with controllable morphology through self-polymerization of cyanate esters with different prepolymerization time and curing temperatures.The dielectric films could present high thermal stability with Tg>180℃.Significant improvement in the dielectric properties was achieved for the dielectric constant and loss was much stabler than neat PEN over the frequency range from 100 Hz to 5 MHz.When the prepolymerization time was 3h and final curing temperature reached 230℃,the dielectric constant and dielectric loss of the films were 3.36 and 0.013 at 100 kHz,respectively.The dimensional stability(CTE=53.67×10^-6 K^-1)was confirmed and con sidered beneficial to use as an in terlayer dielectrics.