A method for the syntheses of a,w-dibenzyl aromatic poly(ether su1fone)s (PSU) and poly(oxy-2,6-dimethyl-l,4-phenylene) (POP) containing pendant vinyl groups is presented. The first step of the synthetic procedure involves the chloromethylation of PSU and POP to provide polymers with chloromethyl groups. POP, containing bromomethyl groups, was obtained by radical bromination of the methyl groups. Both chloromethylated and bromomethylated starting materials were transformed into their phosphonium salts, and then subjected to a phase transfer catalyzed Wittig reaction to provide polymers with pendant vinyl groups. A PSU, containing pendant ethynyl groups, was prepared by bromination of the PSU, containing pendant vinyl groups, followed by a phase transfer catalyzed dehydrobromination. Differential scanning calorimetry of the thermal curing of the polymers containing pendant vinyl and ethynyl groups showed that the curing reaction is much faster for the polymers containing vinyl groups. The resulting network polymers are flexible when the starting polymer contains pendant vinyl groups, and very rigid when it contains pendant ethynyl groups. Scheme I : 1 3 4 TBAH. IH,CICH~I,IBHSO: Functional polymers and sequential copolymers by phase transfer catalysis, 3 2321An aromatic PSU containing pendant ethynyl groups was prepared by bromination of the vinyl groups of a PSU sample, followed by dehydrobromination with NaOH in the presence of tetrabutylammonium hydrogen sulfate (TBAH) as phase transfer catalyst (Scheme 1 ) .
Scheme 2:The thermal curing of both PSU and POP containing pendant vinyl and ethynyl groups was studied by DSC, and demonstrated a very high thermal reactivity for this new class of thermally reactive polymers.
Experimental partMaterials: Bisphenol-A (BPA) (4,4 '4sopropylidenediphenol) (from Aldrich) was recrystallized from aqueous methanol. 4,4'-Dichlorodiphenyl sulfone (DCPS) (from Aldrich) was recrystallized twice from toluene. Tetrabutylammonium hydrogen sulfate (TBAH), benzylchloride, 1,1,2,2-tetrachloroethane (TCE), triphenylphosphine (PPh, ), 1,4-dioxane, toluene, bromine, potassium tert-butoxide (K-t-Bu), formaldehyde (37 wt.-% aqueous solution) (all from Aldrich) were used as received.