Preparation of polyarylene ether nitriles/fullerene composites with low dielectric constant by cosolvent evaporation

Abstract

Fullerenes are widely used to reduce the dielectric constant of composites due to their special hollow cage structure. However, the main challenge for the realization of its material potential application is to improve the interfacial compatibility between the polymer matrix and fullerenes. Here we report a pure physical method of cosolvent evaporation to prepare polyarylene ether nitriles (PEN) composite films with well-defined monodisperse clusters of fullerenes for manufacturing flexible printed circuit boards. The presence of fullerenes is proven to be crucial to decrease the dielectric constant of composite films. The film with 3 wt% fullerenes loading possesses the lowest dielectric constant of 2.65 at 1 MHz, and its service life is detected as 3.3 years by Flynn–Wall–Ozawa method. Additionally, when the composite films used in flexible copper clad laminate (FCCL), the 180° peeling strength between the resin and copper foil is 6.91 N cm−1. Therefore, this PEN/fullerene composite provides potential application for the preparation of FCCL.