Partly Imidized Polyamic Acid and Its Uniaxial Stretched Polyimide Films

Partly imidized polyamic acid（PAA） has been used to prepare high performance polyimide films. The be- haviors of two polyamic acids derived from pyromellitic dianhydride（PMDA）/4,4＇-oxydianiline（ODA） and 3,3＇,4,4＇-biphenyltetracarboxylic diahhydride（BPDA）/paraphenylenediamine（PPD） containing dehydrating agents composed of acetic anhydride and a tertiary amine as the catalyst were investigated. The gel point was dependent on imidization degree in despite of temperature and the molar ratio of catalyst to acetic acid. Imdization content was about 35% for PMDA/ODA and about 22% for BPDA/PPD. The effect of catalyst on imidization possessed an order of triethylamine〉3-methylpyridine〉pyridine〉isoquinoline〉2-methylpyridine. The stretching of the films greatly re- duced the coefficient of linear thermal expansion（CTE） either in the longitudinal direction or transversal direction. Compared to the film from polyamic acid, the partly imidized film had greater stretching ratio, so that the uniaxial stretched polyimide film from partly imidized PAA had higher tensile strength and tensile modulus, but lower elonga- tion in the stretching direction.

A new route of fabricating porous polyimide membranes

A novel experimental route to fabricate porous polyimide membranes （PPMs） with ideal air permeability was reported. The polymer solution layer consisting of the corresponding polyamic acid （PAA）, solvent, and dibutyl phthalate （DBP） with a boiling temperature of 340℃ was treated by a simple process. The polymer solution layer was first treated at a lower temperature （about 150℃）, then the received solid membrane was further imidized at a higher temperature （about 270℃）, and finally, DBP was removed from the membrane at a temperature above its boiling temperature. The final asymmetric polyimide membrane with a dense skin layer was obtained. To improve the air permeability of the polyimide membranes, the polymer solution layer was treated between two substrates. And the PPMs with open pores on both sides are fabricated and the air permeability of the films is improved greatly.

Comparison of Different Methods for Determining the Imidization Degree of Polyimide Fibers

In this study, polyimide fibers at different stages of imidization were characterized by TGA, DSC, and FTIR. The imidization degree （ID） calculated by TGA was based on the weight loss of each sample, which was caused by the imidization of residual amic acid groups. The results of TGA showed good regularity with the thermal treatment temperature of the PI fibers. For DSC, the ID was calculated based on the area of endothermal peak of each sample. Compared with TGA, DSC showed a relatively higher value because the endothermal peak was reduced by the exothermic re-formation of polyamic acid which may be partially degraded during thermal treatment. The IDs obtained by the FTIR spectra generally showed poorer regularities than those obtained by both TGA and DSC, especially for the results calculated using the 730 cm^-1 band. Based on the 1350 cm^-1 band, the obtained IDs showed better agreement with the TGA or DSC results. The results obtained by these three methods were compared and analyzed. The ID obtained by TGA showed much more reliability among these three methods.