Aromatic polyamides are difficult to process as high performance polymers due to their high softening temperatures and/or insolubility in most organic solvents (1). Therefore, research was focused to incorporate new functionalities to develop structurally modified aromatic polyamides with increased solubility (2,3). The present investigation focused on the synthesis and characterization of a series novel polyamides from new diamines were designed and synthesized in four steps as shown in Scheme 1. A series of novel polyamides were prepared from the diamines and various aliphatic and aromatic dicarboxylic acids via phosphorylation polyamidation. These polymers bear flexible ether linkages in the backbone and bulky pendant groups that create functionalities and impart properties such as thermal stability and solubility to the polyamides. It is expected that the presence of voluminous pendant groups to result in a less ordered polymer matrix, to enhance the solubility and processing characteristics of these polymers while maintaining a good thermal stability. The polyamides were tested for different physical properties including viscosity, solubility, thermal stability and fluorescence behavior.
