Study on the Coordination Effect of Different Flexible Polybenzimidazoles with Copper Ions

Abstract

High-performance polymers such as polybenzimidazole (PBI) can have their thermomechanical properties greatly enhanced by the coordination of their rich imidazole groups with metal ions. The molecular chain’s flexibility influents on metal ion coordination greatly. In this paper, PBI with different chain flexibility was synthesized by varying the number of ether bond-containing monomers during the polymerization process. Rheological characterization of supramolecular networks obtained by coordination of different flexible PBI with copper ions was performed to explain in depth the effect of molecular chain flexibility on the reaction between copper ions and imidazole groups. The enhanced mechanical properties of the copper ion coordination polymer networks were compared to provide insight into the enhanced toughening mechanism of PBI with metal ion coordination.