| Abstract: | A series of wholly aromatic polyamide-hydrazides was investigated in order to acquire clear understanding of the influence exerted by controlled structural variations in these polymers upon some of important properties, such as chain flexibility, membrane permselectivity, and thermal as well as thermo-oxidative stability. For that reason, the content of para and meta phenylene units was varied within this series so that the changes in the latter were 12.5 mol % from polymer to polymer, starting from an overall content of 0–50 mol %. The polymers were prepared by a low-temperature solution polycondensation reactin of p-aminobenzhydrazide (ABH) and terephthaloyl chloride (TCI), isophthaloyl chloride (ICI), and their appropriate combinations in N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMA) as solvent and all of these preparations were monitored viscometrically in order to prepare the products with as similar as possible average molecular weights. Polymer structures were characterized by elemental analysis, infrared spectrometry, and 13C NMR spectroscopy, while their molecular weights were determined by light scattering and dilute-solution viscometry. Polymer properties were evaluated by solution viscometry, reverse osmosis tests, and thermal gravimetric analysis. The results obtained during the preparation of these materials, their subsequent structural characterization, and their property evaluations are discussed. They clearly indicate that substitution of m-phenylene units for p-phenylene ones within this polymer series led to an increase in polymer chain flexibility (from what is usually referred to as semiflexible or semirigid to typically flexible macromolecules), disrupted selectivity of the asymmetric thin membranes under reverse osmosis conditions and decreased stability at elevated temperatures in inert as well as in oxidative atmospheres. |
