Abstract
Hybrid organic-inorganic materials based on polyimide-silica systems have been developed successfully by a sol-gel process. Hydrolysis of PTEOS was carried out on THF solution of polyamic acid. Imidization and sol-gel condensation was carried out simultaneously after evaporating the solvent for several steps. In the hybrid systems, microstructure could be controlled by the acid-catalyzing of polyamic acid. The compatibility of the hybrid systems has been studied by phase morphology. The result reveals that the size of the silica-rich particles could be depressed to nanoscale, and they are uniformly dispersed in the polymer matrix. In the work, thermal properties of the hybrid systems were improved by the enhancement of compatibility between polyimide and silica.