Studies on crosslinking and thermal behavior of phthalonitrile end‐capped imide monomer in presence of aromatic amines

This paper describes the synthesis and characterization of a bisphthalonitrile monomer having an imide linkage prepared by reacting 4,4′‐(hexafluoroisopropylidene) diphthalic anhydride with 4‐(4‐aminophenoxy) phthalonitrile. The structure of the monomer was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared, ¹H‐NMR, and ¹³C‐NMR spectroscopy. The curing behavior of bisphthalonitrile monomer was investigated in the absence or presence of different diamines using differential scanning calorimetry. Diamines 4,4′‐diaminodiphenyl ether (DDE) and 4,4′‐diaminodiphenylsulfone (DDS) were used to investigate the effect of the structure of diamines on the curing behavior of bisphthalonitrile monomer. An exothermic transition due to curing was observed in the DSC scan, and the curing temperature was found to be dependent on the nucleophilicity of the amine. DDE was found to be more reactive than DDS. The thermal stability of the cured resins was evaluated using thermogravimetry in nitrogen atmosphere. All of the cured samples were stable up to 400 °C and leave behind 62% char residue at 800 °C, which was found to be dependent on the structure of the diamine used for curing as well as on the curing conditions. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018 , 135, 46151.