The utilization of accelerators has been a common approach to prepare low-temperature curable polyimide (PI). However, the accelerators have gradually fallen out of favor because of their excessive dosages and negative effect on the properties of PI. In this work, a new strategy of introducing accelerators by grafting to eliminate these disadvantages is presented. A novel quinoline derivative named 6-([1,1'-biphenyl]-4-yl)-4-chloroquinoline (NQL) is designed for this purpose, and an ultralow dosage of only 2.5 mol% is sufficient to prepare low-temperature curable PI. The favorable low-temperature curing effect of NQL is attributed to its strong alkalinity (pKa = 18.47) and electron-donating ability. At a curing temperature of 200 °C, the PI with 2.5 mol% NQL showed outstanding properties (Young's modulus of 5.73 GPa, elongation of 37.3%, tensile strength of 237 MPa, and coefficient of thermal expansion of 16 ppm K-1 ). In particular, NQL can even lower the curing temperature to 180 °C and the ultralow temperature curable PI film still retains excellent properties. These results demonstrate that introducing low-temperature curable accelerators by partial grafting instead of blending is a promising way to furnish low-temperature curable PI, and provide insights into the preparation of polyimide with high performance in advanced packaging.
Keywords: grafts; low curing temperature; polyimide; quinoline derivatives.
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