Process for the modification of aromatic polymers via Friedel-Crafts reactions to produce novel polymers and the use thereof

Claim 1

A process for the addition of pendant groups to polyarylene comprising the steps of charging a reaction vessel with a solution of a polyarylene and a Friedel-Crafts catalyst, said polyarylene having the formula ##STR21## wherein said each R is independently a C 1 to C 8 aliphatic or a C 5 to C 7 cycloaliphatic radical, an aryl radical having the formula ##STR22## where said each R 1 is independently a C 1 to C 8 aliphatic radical and p is an integer of 0 to 4, each said radical being free of a tertiary alpha-carbon atom; A is hydrogen, halogen, an aliphatic or an aryl radical; Y is a divalent oxygen or sulfur atom or a carbonate group and n is an integer of from about 75 to about 10,000; adding to said reaction vessel a pendant forming group G, wherein G is derived from a compound selected from the group consisting of sulfonyl halides having the formula ##STR23## where X is a halogen and R 2 is a C 1 to C 20 aliphatic or a naphthyl radical; a sulfonamide halide having the formula ##STR24## where R 2 is as above and can be the same or different; alkylhalides having the formula R.sub.3 --X where X is a halogen and R 3 is a C 5 to C 20 aliphatic radical; acylhalides having the formula ##STR25## where X is a halogen and R 4 is a C 5 to C 20 aliphatic or an aryl radical of the formula ##STR26## and where R 1 and p are as described above, phosphorus acid halides having the formula X.sub.q --P--(R.sub.5).sub.3-q where X is a halogen; R 5 is selected from the group consisting of R 4 , O--R 4 and mixtures thereof and q is an integer of from 1 to 3; heating the contents of said reaction vessel to form a substituted polyarylene having the formula ##STR27## where G is present in at least five percent of the polyarylene units and R, A, Y, G and n are as described and, thereafter recovering said substituted polyarylene.