Effect of crystal-disrupting chlorohydroquinone on the first-order transitions of poly(aryl ether ketone)s containing biphenyl units

The novel poly(aryl ether ketone)s were synthesized by nucleophilic substitution reactions of 4,4'-difluorobenzophenone with 4,4'-biphenyldiol and chlorohydroquinone. As expected, the copolymers have lower melting transitions than the biphenyldiol-based homopoly(aryl ether ketone) because of the copolymerization effect of the crystal-disrupting monomer chlorohydroquinone. Copolymers containing 50 and 70% biphenyldiol show two first-order transitions which are associated with the crystal-to-liquid crystal transition and the liquid crystal-to-isotropic transition.