Silicon-containing poly(amide-ether)s

Abstract

New aromatic poly(amide-ether)s (II) have been synthesized by solution polycondensation of various aromatic diamines having two ether bridges (I) with a diacid chloride containing silicon, namely bis(chlorocarbonylphenyl)-diphenylsilane. These polymers are easy soluble in polar amidic solvents such as N-methylpyrrolidinone or dimethylformamide and can be cast into thin flexible films or coatings from such solutions. They show high thermal stability with initial decomposition temperature being above 400°C. Their glass transition temperatures lie in the range of 220–250°C, except for polymer IIe which did not show a clear Tg when heated in a differential scanning calorimetry experiment up to 300°C. The large interval between the glass transition and decomposition temperatures of polymers Ia–Id could be advantageous for their processing via compression molding. The polymer coatings deposited by the spin-coating technique onto silicon wafers showed a very smooth, pinhole-free surface in atomic force microscopy investigations. The free-standing films of 20–30 μm thickness show low dielectric constant, in the range of 3.65–3.78, which is promising for future application as high performance dielectrics. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.