Preparation and properties of polyimide/silica hybrid composites based on polymer‐modified colloidal silica

Abstract

Abstract A new type of polyimide/silica (PI/SiO 2 ) hybrid composite films was prepared by blending polymer‐modified colloidal silica with the semiflexible polyimide. Polyimide was solution‐imidized at higher temperature than the glass transition temperature ( T g ) using 3,3′,4,4′‐biphenyltetracarboxylic dianhydride (BPDA) and 4,4′‐diaminodiphenyl ether (ODA). The morphological observation on the prepared hybrid films by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) pointed to the existence of miscible organic–inorganic phase, which resulted in improved mechanical properties compared with pure PI. The incorporation of the silica structures in the PI matrix also increased both T g and thermal stability of the resulting films. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 100: 2053–2061, 2006