We successfully prepared a series of soluble, thermally stable Polyarylenes with low dielectric constant (k) by coupling polymerization of aromatic dihalides and/or bismesylates of the corresponding bisphenols using Zn and Ni-phosphine catalysts. Among the non-fluorinated polyarylenes, a soluble copolyarylene derived from bismesylates of 9,9-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl)fluorene and 4,4'-dihydroxyphenyl-diphenylmethane showed with k=2.7 (@1MHz), Tg:>300 °C, and Td (5%,N2):549°C the lowest k value. The polyarylene with the lowest k, a fluorinated polymer prepared from the bismesylate of 2,2-bis-(4-hydroxyphenyl)hexafluoropropane, showed k=2.2 (@1MHz), Tg:249°C and Td (5%,N2):508°C. Among organic polymers, soluble polyarylenes proved to be very promising as low k materials with high thermal stability. In addition, we show based on these new results and previous results with fluorenyliden-substituted polyimides how to estimate the dielectric constant in polyimides and polyarylenes as a function of polar linkage (imide) concentration and fluorine content.
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