Post-polymerization modification of polyetherimide by Friedel-Crafts acylation: Physical-chemical characterization and performance as gas separation membrane

Despite recent interest in post-polymerization modification, high-performance aromatic polymers have not received much attention as a suitable platform for the synthesis of new polymer libraries. In this article, we describe the post-polymerization modification of a polyetherimide, employing Friedel-Crafts acylation, resulting in derivatives with varied side groups and degrees of acylation. It is shown that by increasing the degree of acylation and the size of the acyl group the glass transition temperature decreases, following a linear relation, while the thermal stability is not significantly affected, and the water contact angle of the derivative membranes increases. Gas permeability tests demonstrated an increase in the permeability of the derivative membranes to N-2 and CO2 as the degree of acylation increases. The results demonstrated the potential of the post-polymerization Friedel-Crafts acylation of high-performance aromatic polymers to obtain new and efficient membranes for gas separation.

Automated summary

In this article, we investigated the post-polymerization modification of a polyetherimide via Friedel-Crafts acylation to synthesize derivatives with different side groups and degrees of acylation. The results showed that increasing the degree of acylation and the size of the acyl group led to a decrease in the glass transition temperature, while the thermal stability remained unaffected. The water contact angle of the derivative membranes increased with higher degrees of acylation. Gas permeability tests demonstrated that the permeability to N-2 and CO2 increased as the degree of acylation increased, indicating the potential of post-polymerization Friedel-Crafts acylation in obtaining efficient gas separation membranes.