Low dielectric, nanoporous fluorinated polyimide films prepared from PCL-PI-PCL triblock copolymer using retro-Diels-Alder reaction.

The triblock copolymers with the majority phase comprising fluorinated polyimide and the minor phase consisting of poly (ε-caprolactone) (PCL) were synthesized through Diels-Alder reaction between PI-Maleimide and PCL-Furfuryl Amine. The chemical composition and structure of the copolymers were characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), gel permeation chromatography (GPC), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Films of the copolymers were spined and microphase-separation of the thin film was achieved by solvent annealing in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) vapor. The microphase-separation morphology was investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Based on the microphase-separation structures, nanoporous fluorinated polyimide films were obtained after removal of the PCL block can removed via a retro-DA (Diels-Alder) reaction using a simple heating and immersing procedure. The nanoporous thin film was characterized by Transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The dielectric property of the nanoporous fluorinated polyimide films was investigated. It was found that the nanopores introduction could effectively reduce the dielectric constant from 2.82 of PI dense films to 2.10 of nanoporous PI films.