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The synthesis and characterization of pendant octafluoro aromatic polyimides (8 F-PIs) derived from 4, 4’-(2, 2, 2-trifluoro-1-pentafluorophenylethylidene)diphthalic anhydride (8 FDA) and several aromatic diamines is described. The synthesis of bis(3,4-dimethylphenyl)pentafluorophenyltrifluoromethylmethane (8 FTM), and 2-(3, 4-dimethylphenyl)-2-pentafluorophenyl-2-trifluoromethylethanol (8 F-OH), the precursors to 8 FDA are also discussed. The synthesis of 8 FTM is accompanied by two major by-products resulting in a low yield of desired product. The presence of the pentafluorophenyl group in the backbone of the fluorinated polyimides introduces flexibility and free volume manifested by lower Tg’s than more rigid analogs. The highly fluorinated polyimides exhibited lower dielectric constants than most fluorinated polyimides. The 8 F-PIs cured at a maximum temperature 371 °C/1 hr. exhibited thermal stabilities typical of high performance fluorinated polyimides. High temperature (436 °C) and pressure (281.2 kg/m2, 4000 psi.) post cure of 8 F-PI prepared from 8 FDA and p-phenylene diamine exhibited high thermo-oxidative stability, high density and low moisture absorption.

Throughout the twentieth century, packaging was a carefully cultivated element of the appeal of the cigarette. However, the tobacco industry's control over cigarette packaging has been steadily eroded through legislation that aims to rebrand the packet from a desirable to a dangerous commodity - epitomized in Australia's introduction of plain packaging in 2012. Evident in both the enactment of cigarette packaging legislation and industry efforts to overturn it is the assumption that packets do things - i.e. that they have a critical role to play in either promoting or discouraging the habit. Drawing on 175 ethnographic interviews conducted with people smoking in public spaces in Vancouver, Canada; Canberra, Australia; Liverpool, England; and San Francisco, USA, we produce a ‘thick description’ of smokers' engagements with cigarette packets. We illustrate that despite the very different types of cigarette packaging legislation in place in the four countries, there are marked similarities in the ways smokers engage with their packets. In particular, they are not treated as a purely visual sign; instead, a primary means through which one's own cigarette packet is apprehended is by touch rather than by sight. Smokers perceive cigarette packets largely through the operations of their hands - through their ‘handiness’. Thus, our study findings problematize the assumption that how smokers engage with packets when asked to do so on a purely intellectual or aesthetic level reflects how they engage with packets as they are enfolded into their everyday lives.