United States of America As Represented by the Secretary of the Air Force

Derrick R Dean

Fred E Arnold, Jr

Thuy D Dang

Narayanan Venkatasubramanian

Molecular dispersions of rigid-rod polybenzobisazole polymer/copolymer in thermoplastic matrices in a weight ratio of about 1:99 to 50:50 are prepared by dissolving the rigid-rod polymer in an alcoholic or aprotic solvent, dissolving the thermoplastic polymer in an alcoholic or aprotic solvent, combining the two solutions and recovering the resulting molecular composite from the combined solution. These molecular dispersions consist essentially of rigid-rod polybenzobisazole polymer/copolymer having sulfonic acid groups pendant to the polymer/copolymer backbone and thermoplastic polymers selected from the group consisting of polyvinylpyridines, poly(arylene ether ketone)s with a pyridyl functionality, aromatic poly(pyridine ether)s and poly(pyridine ether sulfone) copolymers, and polyimides with a pyridyl functionality.

Processing of thermoplastic rigid-rod molecular composites

Molecular dispersions of rigid-rod polybenzobisazole polymer/copolymer in thermosetting matrices in a weight ratio of about 1:99 to 50:50 are prepared by dissolving the rigid-rod polymer in an alcoholic or aprotic solvent, dissolving the thermosetting polymer in an alcoholic or aprotic solvent, combining the two solutions and recovering the resulting molecular composite from the combined solution. These molecular dispersions consist essentially of rigid-rod polybenzobisazole polymer/copolymer having sulfonic acid groups pendant to the polymer/copolymer backbone and thermosetting polymers selected from the group consisting of iminobis(N-propyl-2-phenylethynyl-phthalimide), N-ethyl-(2,6-di-benzocyclobutenoxy)benzylamine, iminobis(N-propylnadic imide) and difunctional benzoxazine monomers of the formula ##STR1## wherein X is a single bond, --CO-- or --C(CH.sub.3).sub.2 -- and Q is --CH.sub.3 or --C.sub.6 H.sub.5.

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Derrick R Dean