High temperature polymer foams

Abstract A means of generating high temperature polymer foams with pore sizes in the nanometre range has been developed. Foams were prepared by casting block copolymers comprising a thermally stable block as the matrix and a thermally labile material as the dispersed phase. Upon thermal treatment the thermally unstable block underwent thermolysis, leaving pores with a size and shape dictated by the initial copolymer morphology. Nanopore foam formation is shown for triblock copolymers composed of a poly(phenylquinoxaline) (PPQ) matrix with either poly(propylene oxide) (PO) or poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) as the thermally labile coblocks. Upon decomposition of these blocks, a 10–20% reduction in density was observed, consistent with the initial PO or PMMA composition, and the resulting PPQ foams showed dielectric constants of about 2.4, substantially lower than that of PPQ (2.8). Small-angle X-ray scattering and transmission electron microscopy showed pore sizes of approximately 100 A.