Synthesis and characterization of fluorinated poly(azomethine ether)s from new core-fluorinated azomethine-containing monomers

<div><p></p><p>In this work, we describe the design and synthesis of novel core-fluorinated Schiff base monomers and conjugated polymers based on them. The new fully aromatic highly fluorinated poly(azomethine ether)s (PAMEs) were prepared by polycondensation of core-fluorinated azomethine-containing compounds. The structure of the monomers and polymers were confirmed by FTIR, ¹H, ¹³C, and ¹⁹F NMR spectroscopic analysis. The influence of synthesis condition on the properties of PAME compounds was investigated. Application of polarization microscopy with a temperature control thermal stage revealed thermotropic liquid crystalline (LC) behavior in the synthesized materials. Transition temperatures and a range of the existence of the LC phase were studied by a combination of the optical microscopy and DSC analysis. According to the TGA analysis, all the synthesized PAMEs show high thermal stability and thus offer a wide range of thermal processibility (up to 410–477 °C), which makes them prospective materials for many modern applications.</p></div