ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the quantum chemical study of monomeric activity in polyamic acid synthesis and of the polyamic acid cyclodehydration reaction yielding polyimides. Quantum chemical analysis of chain conformations of polyamic acids and polyimides and of the polyimide chain arrangement in the crystalline lattice were also performed. The chapter considers the polyamic acids and polyimides containing no more than four aromatic rings in a repeating unit. Polyamic acids, the prepolymers of polyimides, are formed by condensing diamines with tetracarboxylic acid dianhydrides. The chapter explores the relationship between the reactivity of monomers and their electronic structure by quantum chemical methods. It analyses the influence of the amine chemical structure upon transition state energies. It has been shown that interaction energies in the initial reaction stage are combined reactivity indices correlating with the rate and the course of reaction.
