History of Polyarylates

Abstract

Polyarylates are an emerging class of new engineering polymers. At one point polyarylates were described as linear polyesters of dihydric phenols [1]. In this paper, however, they are described as wholly aromatic polyesters derived from aromatic dicarboxylic acids and diphenols. Reactions of aromatic dicarboxylic acids and glycols have been known for years [2] as well as diphenols (e.g. acetate ester) with aliphatic diacids [3,4]. The reaction of aromatic dicarboxylic acids and diphenols were first noted by Conix [5] in 1957. The acid chloride and the diacetate routes were noted as feasible synthesis procedures to obtain polyarylates of high molecular weight. Levine and Temin [6] (1958), Eareckson [7] (1959), and Morgan and Kwolek [8] (1959) were also early contributors to the technical literature regarding the synthesis of polyarylates. In the same time period, Russian investigators (Korshak, Vinogradova, Lebyedyeva, and others), were also quite active with many references [9–16] in the Russian technical literature. These papers were summarized in a book by Korshak and Vinogradova that constitutes one of the first reviews of the synthesis of polyarylates [1].