Synthesis and properties of high-temperature-resistant fluorinated poly(arylene ether sulfone) copolymers with low dielectric constant

Abstract

A series of novel fluorinated poly(arylene ether sulfone) (PAES-6AF) copolymers were successfully synthesized via nucleophilic aromatic substitution polycondensation of biphenol, hexafluorobisphenol A, and 4, 4′-dichlorodiphenyl sulfone, and the relationship between their chemical composition and resultant properties was systematically investigated. The results demonstrate that the PAES‑6AF copolymers possess high glass transition temperatures (201-226 °C) and excellent thermal stability, with 5 % weight loss temperatures reaching up to 561 °C under nitrogen. Moreover, these copolymers exhibit good solubility in various common organic solvents, allowing the fabrication of flexible and transparent films via solution casting. The resulting films show attractive mechanical properties, including good flexibility and tensile strength up to 76 MPa. Notably, the incorporation of varying contents of fluorinated units effectively modulates the dielectric properties, and the dielectric constant decreases from 3.32 to 2.96 at 1 MHz while the dielectric loss remains below 0.011. These combined characteristics demonstrate that PAES‑6AF copolymers are promising candidates for use as high-performance low‑dielectric‑constant materials.