Insights into the Chain and Local Mobility of Some Aromatic Polyamides and Their Influence on the Physicochemical Properties

Functional Aromatic Polyamides

We describe herein the state of the art following the last 8 years of research into aromatic polyamides, wholly aromatic polyamides or aramids. These polymers belong to the family of high performance materials because of their exceptional thermal and mechanical behavior. Commercially, they have been transformed into fibers mainly for production of advanced composites, paper, and cut and fire protective garments. Huge research efforts have been carried out to take advantage of the mentioned characteristics in advanced fields related to transport applications, optically active materials, electroactive materials, smart materials, or materials with even better mechanical and thermal behavior.

Dielectric and gas transport properties of highly fluorinated polyimides blends

The physicochemical properties of highly fluorinated polyimide blends were studied in order to highlight the advantages of employing a high content of fluorine atoms to tailor the properties of polyimide materials. Thus, dynamo-mechanical analysis was used to evidence the physical phenomena taking place during heating. The trend of storage modulus, loss modulus and loss factor tangent with temperature during and after the α relaxation was explored. The dielectric spectroscopy was carried out to investigate the dielectric behaviour at different temperatures and frequencies and to evaluate the values of dielectric constant, dielectric loss and electrical resistance. The dielectric spectroscopy data were corroborated with the dynamo-mechanical analysis to highlight the sub-glass transitions encountered in these blend films. Dielectric loss diagrams showed sub-glass transitions in the form of γ and β relaxations mainly due to the segmental mobility of the polymer chain components. The gas separation performance of some of the investigated blends was assesed, and their ability to achieve simultaneously higher gas permeability and higher selectivity was demonstrated.