SYNTHESIS AND RHEOLOGICAL STUDY OF SOME MALEIC-ACID POLYAMIDES

The contributions of the cis and trans configurations of the main chain double bonds to the transition temperatures and rheological properties were determined for four well-defined polymaleamides, which were prepared by the room temperature ring-opening, step-growth polymerization reactions of N,N prime -bisisomaleimide monomers with bifunctional primary diamines. The polymaleamides were glassy solids, which could be thermally isomerized into related polyfumaramides. The glass transition temperatures of the polyfumaramides, as determined by mechanical spectrometry, are systematically and markedly higher than those of the polymaleamides from which they were derived.