ABSTRACT:The five benzene rings-containing diamine, α, α -bis [3,5-dimethyl-4-(4-aminophenoxy)phenyl]-1,4-diisopropylbenzene (BDAPD) was prepared by the aromatic nucleophilic substitution of α, α -bis(4-hydroxy-3,5-dimethylphenyl)-1,4-diisopropylbenzene with 1-chloro-4-nitrobenzene, and subsequent hydrogenation of the intermediate dinitro compound. The diamine was reacted with various aromatic dicarboxylic acids to prepare a series of new polyamides. The polyamides were produced with high yield and inherent viscosities of 0.68-0.94 dL g −1 . The wideangle X-Ray diffraction diagrams revealed that all the polyamides showed amorphous character. All of the polyamides showed excellent solubility in a variety of solvents such as N, N, Ndimethylformade, dimethyl sulfoxide, pyridine, cyclohexanone, and tetrahydrofuran. These five benzene ringscontaining polyamides had better solubility than those containing only one isopropylidene unit or a hexafluoroisopropylidene linkage in the repeating unit of polyamide backbone. These polyamides had glass transition temperatures (T g 's) between 237-256 • C. The thermogravimetric analyses demonstrated that almost all of the polymers were stable up to 400• C, and the 10% weight loss temperatures were recorded in the range 437-452• C and 447-463• C in nitrogen and air atmosphere, respectively.Aromatic polyamides have already been reported for their high temperature resistance and excellent mechanical properties. 1, 2 However, wholly aromatic polyamides, particularly those with para substituted rings, are quite intractable materials that do not melt and only dissolve in strong mineral acids such as concentrated sulfuric acid or in very polar aprotic solvents containing salts. Therefore, many efforts have been made to chemically modify the structure of these polymers with the aim of improving their solubility and/or lowering their transition temperatures to a range which facilitates their processing in melt.Approaches investigated in attempting to improve the solubility of polyamides include the addition of pendent groups to the polymeric backbone 3-5 and the incorporation of bulky substituents 6-9 or flexible units 10, 11 within the parent chain.A successful approach to improve the processability of aromatic polyamide without extreme loss of their outstanding properties is to introduce flexible ether and isopropylidene units into the polymer backbone. Such flexible polyamides are known to exhibit reasonable thermal stability and good mechanical properties together with excellent moldabiltiy. Our previous works observed that the solubility of polyamides, 12 polyimides, 13 and polyamide-imides 14, 15 was enhanced by incorporating the ether and isopropylidene units into the polymer backbone while retaining a satisfying thermal stability.In this study the diamine, α, α -bis [3,5-dimethyl-4-(4-aminophenoxy)phenyl]-1,4-diisopropylbenzene (BDAPD) containing flexible ether and isopropylidene units, and five benzene rings was synthesized and used to prepare a series of polyamides. Due to the...