Engineering vapor-deposited polyimides

The vapor deposition polymerization (VDP) of PMDA-ODA polyimide was studied parametrically to produce microcapsules and thin films with desirable properties and quality for the Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) experiments. The mechanical properties and gas permeability were determined at temperatures from 10 to 573 K. The VDP polyimide possessed distinct properties including lower gas permeability and stronger tensile properties from those of solution-cast Kapton, which were attributed to the presence of cross-linking. Processing parameters determining the properties of the VDP polyimide were identified: (1) utilizing air instead of nitrogen as the atmosphere of imidization increased the permeability by 140%, lowered the activation energy for permeation, and reduced the tensile strength by 30% without affecting the Young's modulus; (2) imidizing at faster heating rates increased the permeability by up to 50% and reduced the activation energy for permeation with 50% lowered tensile strength and impervious Young's modulus; (3) bi-axial stretching increased the permeability by up to three orders of magnitude. Analyses via IR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and density measurement revealed that the effects of the processing parameters were results of the modifications in the crystallinity and molecular weight. The VDP polyimide underwent minor degradation in the tensile strength and elongation at break with unaffected Young's modulus and permeability upon absorbing 120 MGy of β-radiation. Substituting a fluorinated dianhydride monomer, 6FDA, for PMDA in the optimized VDP process yielded 6FDA-ODA polyimide microcapsules and films with 50-fold increased permeability and comparable mechanical properties. The results of this study enable the production of polyimide microcapsules that will greatly facilitate the ICF experiments, and will broaden the applications of vapor-deposited polyimides in other technology fields.