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Poly(amic acid)s (PAAs) alignment agents have been prepared from the alicyclic dianhydrides, including 1,2,3,4‐cyclobutanetetracarboxylic dianhydride (CBDA, I), 1,3‐dimethyl‐1,2,3,4‐cyclobutanetetracarboxylic dianhydride (DMCBDA, II), and ester‐linked aromatic diamines, including 4‐aminophenyl‐4′‐aminobenzoate (APAB, a) and bis(4‐aminophenyl)terephthalate (BPTP, b), respectively. The derived PAAs, including PAA‐Ia (CBDA‐APAB), PAA‐Ib (CBDA‐BPTP), and PAA‐IIa (DMCBDA‐APAB) exhibited the preferable molecular weights, while the PAA‐IIb (DMCBDA‐BPTP) showed the low one due to the low polymerization reactivity both for the DMCBDA dianhydride and the BPTP diamine. All the PAA solutions except PAA‐IIb were adopted as the alignment components to fabricate liquid crystal (LC) minicells with a mode of in‐plane switching (IPS). The polyimides (PI) alignment layers derived from the thermal dehydration reaction of the PAA precursors at 230°C for 30 min showed good alignments effects to the LC molecules, which exhibited the pretilt angles (θp) from 0.09 to 0.15° after being exposed by the linear polarized ultraviolet light sources with the wavelength of 254 nm. In addition, the PI alignment layers afforded good optoelectronic features to the minicells, including the voltage holding ratio values over 97% at room temperature, and the residual direct circuit voltages lower than 1.0 V. The anchoring energy results indicated that the PI‐IIa (DMCBDA‐APAB) alignment layer showed the highest interaction with the LC molecules, and thus exhibited the highest threshold voltage (Vth) in the voltage‐transmittance (V‐T) measurements for the minicells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two colorless and transparent polyimide (CPI) films with enhanced high‐temperature dimensional stability and solution‐processability were prepared from the methyl‐substituted benzanilide containing organo‐soluble polyimide (PI) resins. For this target, a new aromatic diamine, 2,3′‐dimethyl‐4,4′‐diaminobenzanilide (MMDABA) was synthesized. The methyl substituents were expected to endow the derived PI resins good solubility and rigid‐rod benzanilide units can efficiently reduce the coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE) of the derived CPI films. CPI‐a and CPI‐b were prepared by the one‐step thermal polycondensation from MMDABA with hydrogenated pyromellitic dianhydride for CPI‐a and hydrogenated 3,3′,4,4′‐biphenyltetracarboxylic dianhydride for CPI‐b, respectively. The derived PI resins were soluble in polar aprotic solvents. Colorless and transparent CPI‐a and CPI‐b films were prepared from the PI solutions and the subsequent 280°C curing. The CPI films showed good transparency in visible light and transmittances higher than 80% at 450 nm and yellowness index (b*) below 2.0. More importantly, the derived CPI‐a film showed the glass transition temperature (Tg) of 417.5°C and the CTE value of 46.9 × 10−6/K in the range of 50–250°C. Apparently, incorporation of alkyl‐substituted benzanilide units achieved good balance among solution‐processability, high‐temperature dimensional stability, and optical properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Semi‐alicyclic colorless and transparent polyimide (PI) films with intrinsically flame‐retardant features, excellent optical transparency, and good thermal stability have been designed and successfully prepared. For this target, an aromatic diamine with lateral diphenylphosphine oxide substituent, 2,5‐bis[(4‐aminophenoxy)phenyl]diphenylphosphine oxide (BADPO) was polymerized with two alicyclic dianhydrides, including hydrogenated pyromellitic dianhydride (HPMDA) and hydrogenated 3,3′,4,4′‐biphenyltetracarboxylic dianhydride (HBPDA), respectively, via a one‐step high‐temperature polycondensation procedure to afford two PIs, PI‐a (HPMDA‐BADPO), and PI‐b (HBPDA‐BADPO). The derived PI films maintained the intrinsic good properties for semi‐alicyclic PI films, including excellent optical transparency in the ultraviolet–visible light region with the cutoff wavelength (λcut) around 322 nm and optical transmittance at the wavelength of 450 nm (T450) higher than 83.0%. In addition, the PI films exhibited good thermal stability with the 5% weight loss temperatures (T5%) higher than 460.0°C and glass transition temperatures (Tg) higher than 235.0°C. More importantly, the developed PI films exhibited intrinsic flame retardancy with the limited oxygen indices (LOI) of 41.1% for PI‐a and 28.8% for PI‐b. What is more, the PI films showed the flame retardancy class of UL94 VTM‐0 and low thermal energy and smoke release during combustion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of organo-soluble polyimide (PI) resins were prepared from a newly designed and synthesized aromatic thianthrene-containing diamine, 2,7-bis(3-aminophenoxy)thianthrene (APOT) and various aromatic dianhydrides via a one-step high temperature polycondensation procedure with N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) as the solvent. The derived PI resins were soluble in polar aprotic solvents, including NMP and N,N- dimethylacetamide (DMAc). For comparison, several unsoluble sulfur-containing PIs were prepared from anotherpara-substituted thianthrene-containing diamine, 2,7-bis(4-aminophenylenesulfanyl)thianthrene (APTT) and aromatic dianhydrides by a two-step polycondensation procedure via poly(amic acid) (PAA) precursors at elevated temperatures as high as 300 °C. Flexible and tough PI films with the tensile strength higher than 88 MPa were successfully cast from the APOT-PI resin solution at a relatively low curing temperature of 250 °C. The meta-substituted molecular skeleton in the APOT- PIs endowed the films good optical transparency with the transmittance higher than 83% at a thickness around 10 um, which was apparently higher than those of the para-substituted APTT-PI analogues. The sulfur-rich thianthrene moiety with high molar refraction endowed the APOT-PI films high refractive indices up to 1.7147 at 632.8 nm and low birefringence in the range of 0.0064-0.0133. In addition, the PI films showed good thermal stability with the glass transition temperatures (Tg) higher than 198.3 °C and 5% weight loss temperatures higher than 510 °C in nitrogen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]