SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF POLY (ARYLENE ETHER SULFONE) CONTAINING ANTHRAQUINONE MOIETIES

Thermo-stable anthraquinone chromophores were covalently introduced into high performance polymer poly(arylene ether sulfone) via nucleophilic polycondensation reaction using 4,4'-difluorodiphenyl sulfone,4,4'-biphenol and 1,5-dichloroanthraquinone. The content of anthraquinone chromophores could be well controlled by the feed ratio of anthraquinone monomer,1,5-dichloroanthraquinone. This series of novel poly(arylene ether sulfone) colorants containing 10% ,20% and 30% anthraquinone units (PAES-An 10 ,20 and 30) have high molecular weight and show good solubility in high polar aprotic solvents. FUR and NMR characterizations confirmed the structures of these obtained polymers. A preliminary study of their spectroscopy characteristics was conducted by UV-Vis method. PAES-An polymers show similar spectroscopy behavior but a little red-shift compared to the anthraquinone monomer due to the change of substituent groups after being introduced to PAES. Thermal properties of PAES-An polymers were investigated by DSC and TGA measurements. The introduction of anthraquinone chromophore can increase the glass transition temperature of PAES for its rigid plane structure. it is worth noting that they all show high thermal stability with degradation temperature above 500 degrees C, much higher than the processing temperature of poly (arylene ether sulfone) polymers. High thermal stability and good compatibility make them show potential use for the dying process of high performance plastic poly(arylene ether sulfone).