Syntheses of functional condensation polymers. II. A polyamide having epoxy groups and its ring‐opening derivatives

Abstract

AbstractPolyamides having epoxy groups and their ring‐opening derivatives were prepared and characterized, and some of their properties were investigated. Reaction conditions for the low‐temperature polycondensation of cis‐2,3‐epoxysuccinyl chloride (ESC) with aromatic diamines and the interfacial copolycondensation of ESC and adipyl chloride (AC) with aromatic diamines were established to obtain a high molecular weight polyamide having epoxy groups. In addition, the ring‐opening reactions of the epoxy groups in the polyamides were carried out with various amines in order to obtain polyamides having hydrophilic pendent groups such as amino and hydroxyl. It was found that the polyamides prepared by ring‐opening reaction of the epoxy group with ethylenediamine (EDA) or ethanolamine (EA) had a higher affinity for moisture than those with hexamethylenediamine (HMD) or n‐butylamine (n‐BA), which might be ascribed to the distance of hydrophilic groups from the polyamide chain. Those polyamides having hydrophilic pendent groups decomposed upon heating at less than 200°C.