Fully Rod-like Aromatic Polyimides: Structure, Properties, and Chemical Modifications

Poly(p-phenylene pyromellitimide) and poly(4,4'-biphenylene pyromellitimide) are representatives of fully rod-like polyimides. Their structure and properties in thin films are reviewed. The polymers exhibit some excellent properties such as high molecular packing coefficient, high mechanical modulus, and low thermal expansion coefficient, and low interfacial stress, so that they are very attractive to both industry and academia. However, these polymers are very brittle and thus practically useless. Some chemical modifications to improve such drawback with a little sacrifice of the high modulus are described: i) incorporation of short side groups into the polymer backbone and ii) insertion of proper linkages into the polymer backbone.