Abstract
We fabricated thermosetting maleimide polymers with excellent thermal and optical properties by the sequence-controlled radical copolymerization of N-allylmaleimide (AMI) and N-(2-ethylhexyl)maleimide (EHMI) with diisobutylene (DIB) and postpolymerization reactions. The AAB-type maleimides/DIB copolymers randomly containing an allyl group in the side chain were thermally or photochemically cured using pentaerythritol tetrakis(3-mercaptobutyrate) as a polyfunctional thiol by thiol/ene reaction. The organic-inorganic hybrid was also fabricated by the thiol/ene reaction of the maleimide copolymers containing allyl side groups combined with surface-modified silica nanoparticles. The produced organic-inorganic hybrid was dispersed in tetrahydrofuran. The transparent films of the maleimide copolymers containing the hybrid were obtained by casting and drying. The crosslinked polymers and the organic-inorganic hybrid obtained in this study exhibited excellent thermal stability as well as the high transparency.
