Solution polycondensation of isophthalic acid/terephthalic acid and tetrachlorobisphenol A of low polymerizability with tosyl chloride/dimethylformamide/pyridine improved by the introduction of comonomers of smaller sizes

Abstract

AbstractThe copolycondensations of a mixture of equal parts of isophthalic acid and terephthalic acid with tetrachlorobisphenol A (TC‐BPA) and various aromatic diol comonomers were performed with a tosyl chloride/dimethylformamide/pyridine condensing agent. The reaction with bisphenols containing nonpolar substituents yielded better results than the reaction with polar groups did. Dihydroxybenzenes smaller in size than bisphenols of two benzene rings, especially chlorohydroquinone and chlororesorcinol, were satisfactorily incorporated and yielded copolymers of high inherent viscosities and weight‐average molecular weights (by gel permeation chromatography). The results of the copolycondensations were examined with sequence distributions in the resultant copolymers by NMR and were well evaluated by the ratio of the length of comonomer unit segments to TC‐BPA unit segments. Homopolycondensation with TC‐BPA in the presence of dichlorobenzenes as additives was also promoted to some extent. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 41: 821–830, 2003