1/28/2011
Nanocomposites of a bismaleimide resin with octaphenylsilsesquioxane or nano-SiO2
(125–130)Polymer Composites 32 #1 (2011)
Huang, Huang, Zhou and Du of East China University of Science and Technology, China prepared nanocomposites from the resin of 4,4′-bismaleimido-diphenylmethane (BDM) with dipropargyl ethers of hexafluorobisphenol A (DPBPF) and octaphenylsilsesquioxane (OPS) or nano-SiO2. The reinforcement of OPS was more effective than that of nano-SiO2 in the nanocomposites.  (RDC 1/28/2011)

1/7/2011
Preparation and properties of high-performance polysilsesquioxanes/bismaleimide-triazine hybrids
(360–367)Journal of Applied Polymer  Science 120 #1 (2011)
Hu et al of Soochow University, China prepared POSS-NH2/BT by copolymerizing bismaleimide with cage octa(aminopropylsilsesquioxane) (POSS-NH2) to produce POSS-containing maleimide, and then co-reacted with 2,2′-bis(4-cyanatophenyl) isopropylidene.  These materials show low dielectric loss and good thermal and thermo-oxidative stability, (RDC 1/10/2011)

11/26/2010
Thermal Transitions and Reaction Kinetics of Polyhederal Silsesquioxane containing Phenylethynylphthalimides
(9337–9347) Macromolecules 43 #22 (2010)|
Seurer et al of Michigan State University and the Air Force Research Laoratory studied the thermal transitions and reaction kinetics of polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) with phenylethynylphthalimide (PEPI) groups.  Changing the spacer group from propyl to phenyl causes an increase in the melting transition temperature along with a higher heat of fusion at melting; however, the more rigid phenyl spacer enables the PEPI−POSS to form a higher degree of crystallinity upon cooling.It was found that these PEPI−POSS molecules have reaction kinetics and onset temperatures on par with organic hexafluorophenylethynyl oligoimides, which make these PEPI−POSS molecules excellent candidates as nanocomposite additives in high performance composite applications.  (RDC 11/23/2010)