Abstract
A new class of high‐performance materials, fluorinated poly(phenylene‐co‐imide)s, were prepared by Ni(0)‐catalytic coupling of 2,5‐dichlorobenzophenone with fluorinated dichlorophthalimide. The synthesized copolymers have high molecular weights ($\overline M _{\rm w}$ = 5.74 × 10^4^–17.3 × 10^4^ g · mol^−1^), and a combination of desirable properties such as high solubility in common organic solvent, film‐forming ability, and excellent mechanical properties. The glass transition temperature (T~g~s) of the copolymers was readily tuned to be between 219 and 354 °C via systematic variation of the ratio of the two comonomers. The tough polymer films, obtained by casting from solution, had tensile strength, elongation at break, and tensile modulus values in the range of 66.7–266 MPa, 2.7–13.5%, and 3.13–4.09 GPa, respectively. The oxygen permeability coefficients ($P_{{\rm O}_{\rm 2} }$) and permeability selectivity of oxygen to nitrogen ($P_{{\rm O}_{\rm 2} } /P_{{\rm N}_{\rm 2} }$) of these copolymer membranes were in the range of 0.78–3.01 barrer [1 barrer = 10^−10^ cm^3^ (STP) cm/(cm^2^ · s · cmHg)] and 5.09–6.25, respectively. Consequently, these materials have shown promise as engineering plastics and gas‐separation membrane materials.
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