| Abstract: | Low‐temperature solution‐phase polycondensation of 1,1′‐ferrocenedicarboxylic acid chloride with different aromatic diamines was carried out in tetrahydrofuran in the presence of triethylamine to afford ferrocene‐containing aramids. The products were characterized by their solubilities, inherent viscosities, elemental analysis, FTIR spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetry. All of them were insoluble in common solvents tested, except aramid‐IV (derived from 1,8‐naphthalene diamine), which was slightly soluble in N,N′‐dimethylacetamide, N,N′‐dimethylformamide, dimethylsulfoxide and formic acid. However, all were miscible with concentrated H2SO4, forming red‐coloured solutions. These all show a reduction in their solution viscosities at ambient conditions in concentrated H2SO4 which may be attributed to their non‐Newtonian behaviour. The glass transition temperature for each aramid was quite high, and stable up to 390 °C. The integral procedural decomposition temperatures for the products were calculated using Doyle's method and were found to be intermediate to that of Nylon 66 (419 °C) and Teflon (555 °C), and the activation energy for decomposition of each product was calculated by the Horowitz and Metzger method. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
