Facile Synthesis of Ferrocene-Based Polyamides and Their Organic Analogues Terpolyamides: Influence of Aliphatic and Aromatic Sequences on Physico-Chemical Characteristics

Abstract

Efforts have been devoted to synthesize and characterize processable polymers with desired properties. Herein, four different series of aromatic and aliphatic terpolyamides were prepared via solution phase polycondensation of 4,4′-oxydianiline and hexamethylenediamine (HMDA) with various diacids chlorides (isophthalyol dichloride, terepthalyol dichloride, 1, 1′-ferrocene dicarboxylic acid chloride and trans-azobenzene-4, 4′-dicarbonyl chloride). The structural, morphological and physico-chemical nature of as prepared polymers was explored by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, thermal analysis (TGA and DSC), and wide-angle x-ray diffraction. Moreover, an aliphatic diamine was incorporated in varying concentration as a flexible methylene spacer and the effect of its concentration on the properties of polyamides was also studied. Changes in various physico-chemical properties such as solubility, inherent viscosity, surface morphology and flame retarding behaviour were investigated. Marked difference in morphology and solubility was observed with the change in the ratio of segments in the chain. Inherent viscosities of polymers ranged from 1.8052–1.6274 dl/g indicating reasonably moderate molecular weights. Interestingly, ferrocene based aromatic polymers were more thermally stable (Tg 260 °C, Ti 310 °C, Th 525 °C, Tf 720 °C, for PF0), and also found to exhibit best flame retarding behavior (limiting oxygen index value for PF0is LOI 33.15%).