Biobased transparent polyimides with excellent solubility and mechanical properties using myo-inositol derived diamines

Here, we develope a kind of biobased transparent polyimides (PIs) with excellent solubility and mechanical properties by using myo-inositol derived diamines. Two biobased diamines M1 and M2 were synthesized through a protection reaction of –OH units of myo-inositol followed by the substitution and subsequent reduction reactions. Myo-inositol based PIs were prepared via the microwave-assisted polymerization of biobased diamines and commercial dianhydrides. These PIs were soluble in various common solvents even in CH2Cl2 and acetone at room temperature. The biobased PIs also showed good optical transparency with T450nm values of over 82%. Moreover, all the PI films possessed outstanding mechanical properties with tensile modulus of over 3.5 GPa, which was higher than that of most of petroleum-based PIs. In addition, the PI films containing –OH units were obtained via a simple deprotection reaction of myo-inositol based PIs.