Self-toughened hydrocarbon copolymers with low dielectric constant and dielectric loss

The potential application of hydrocarbon-based resins with excellent dielectric properties for high-performance printed circuit boards has garnered significant attention. In this study, soluble divinylbenzene/styrene/4-tert-butylstyrene copolymers (PDVs) were synthesized through atom transfer radical polymerization using divinylbenzene, 4-tert-butylstyrene, and styrene as raw materials. Additionally, a series of hydrocarbon-based polymers with self-toughening properties (PDVs-SBS) were prepared by incorporating styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS) copolymers during the polymerization process. Compared to PDVs, PDVs-SBS demonstrated superior moldability. Both PDVs and PDVs-SBS exhibited excellent dielectric properties (dielectric constant: 2.2–2.5, tan δ: 0.003–0.005 at 10 GHz), high thermal resistance (T_g > 155 °C), and low moisture absorption (<0.45%) indicating that the synthesized hydrocarbon polymers possess significant potential for applications in electronic packaging and printed circuit boards.