Exploring Polymers of Intrinsic Microporosity – Microporous, Soluble Polyamide and Polyimide

Abstract Polyamides and polyimides featuring a spirobifluorene unit as a structure directing motif in the polymer chain show intrinsic microporosity and consequently high surface areas. Such a spirobifluorene generates a 90° kink per repeating unit and thus prevents space‐efficient packing or crystallization of the otherwise stiff polymer chains. Thus, the approach presented here extends the concept of polymers of intrinsic microporosity for ladder type poly(dibenzodioxane)s to more common polymers of high commercial interest. For example, a microporous polyimide with a surface area of ≈550 m 2 · g −1 was produced, which is readily soluble in chloroform. magnified image