This
work presents the synthesis of new poly(itaconate)s containing
sulfone or nitrile pendant groups through conventional radical polymerization
together with their characterization and comparison with poly(methacrylate)s
containing identical groups. Structural and thermal characterization
has been carried out in terms of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy,
differential scanning calorimetry, nuclear magnetic resonance, and
thermogravimetric analysis. Characterized by broad band dielectric
spectroscopy (BDS), all polymers showed dielectric constant values
between 7 and 10 (at 25 °C and 1 kHz) and relative low dielectric
loss values (≈0.02). BDS measurements showed, for all the polymers
analyzed, notorious subglass transitions even at temperatures below
−100 °C, resulting in a broad temperature interval in
which these polymers exhibit high dielectric constant and could work
without high losses. Therefore, these materials seem to be good candidates
for dielectric applications such as energy storage, among others.