Synthesis of soluble poly(amide-ether-imide-urea)s bearing amino acid moieties in the main chain under green media (ionic liquid)

In this study, an optically active diamine, N,N′-(pyromellitoyl)-bis{N-[4(4-aminophenoxy)phenyl]-2-(4-methyl)pentanamide} (1) containing amino acid l-leucine was prepared in three steps. The step-growth polymerization of this chiral diamine with several diisocyanates in room temperature ionic liquid (IL), 1,3-dipropylimidazolium bromide as an environmentally friendly solvent and in a volatile organic solvent, is investigated. The polymerization yields and inherent viscosities of the resulting poly(amide-ether-imide-urea)s are compared in both solvents. The results show that the IL to be the superior polymerization media. All of the obtained polymers exhibited good solubility in some polar aprotic organic solvents such as N,N-dimethyacetamide, N,N-dimethyformamide, dimethyl sulfoxide while thermal stability was not disturbed based on thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry experiments. X-ray diffraction analysis of polymers shows that they are amorphous. The observation of optical rotation confirms the optical activity of prepared polymers.