Chemistry Letters, Vol.42, No.12, 1545-1547, 2013
Highly Thermally Resistant and Flexible Polyimide Aerogels Containing Rigid-rod Biphenyl, Benzimidazole, and Triphenylpyridine Moieties: Synthesis and Characterization
Polyimide (PI) aerogels containing rigid-rod biphenyl, benzimidazole, and triphenylpyridine moieties have been developed. The flexible PI aerogels exhibited excellent thermal stability with glass-transition temperatures (T-g) higher than 350 degrees C. Initial porous structures in the PI aerogels could be maintained even after isothermal aging at 300 degrees C for 24 h in nitrogen. Furthermore, the weight losses of the aerogels after isothermal aging at 300 and 400 degrees C for 24 h in nitrogen were below 5 and 10 wt %, respectively.