Synthesis and Characterization of Novel Hydrogenated Poly(norbornene bisimide)s Prepared from Ring Opening Metathesis Polymerization

We synthesized three novel poly(norbornene bisimide)s by ring opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) and subsequent hydrogenation. Their thermal, mechanical and optical properties were investigated with TGA, DMA, UV-Vis spectrometer, and optical reflectometer. The new polymers showed high glass transition temperatures over $260^{\circ}C$ and good thermal stability with 5% wt-loss temperature higher than $390^{\circ}C$. When solvent casted, they yielded optically transparent and dimensionally stable films with a relatively low coefficient of thermal expansion of about 50 ppm $K^{-1}$. Therefore, the bisimide moieties substantially enhanced thermal and dimensional stabilities, as compared with normal ROMP-prepared polynorbornene films. Though the water uptake was increased to 0.6 wt-%, this water uptake is still considerably lower than that for polyethersulfones (1.4 wt-%) or polyimides (2.0 wt-%). Hence, the new poly(norbornene bisimide)s may become attractive candidates for flexible substrates of optoelectronic devices such as displays and photovoltaic solar cells.