Dendritic analogues of engineering plastics ‐ a general one‐step synthesis of dendritic polyaryl ethers

Abstract

Abstract The first general single‐step route to dendritic or cascade polyaryl ethers analogous to common linear polyaryl ethers is described. The sodium salts of four AB 2 monomers each containing a single phenolic hydroxyl group and two aryl fluorides activated toward nucleophilic substitution by carbonyl, sulphonyl, or tetrafluorophenyl moieties are shown to polymerize in hot N, N‐dimethylacetamide. The products are high molecular weight polymers (7000 < M n < 36000), have narrow polydispersities (1.50 < M w /M n < 4.50), and are highly soluble in organic solvents. The molecular weights of two of the polymers increase with monomer concentration. The polymers are thermally stable (500 °C under N 2 ) and have glass transition temperatures ranging from 135 to 231 °C.