Polyphenylene Sulfide: A New Industrial Resin

Synthesis and Structure Polyphenylene sulfide resins may have been made as by-products in the research of Friedel and Crafts (1888) and later workers studying the preparation of diphenyl sulfide and related aromatic sulfur compounds. This early work has been reviewed and referenced in summaries by Lenz, (1) Gaylord (2) and Smith. (3) However, it was not until 1948 that Macallum (4) prepared the resins by a method that defined their structure with reasonable certainty and yielded sufficient quantity to study some of their properties. Macallum reacted p-dichlorobenzene with sulfur and anhydrous sodium carbonate in a sealed vessel at 300-340°C. The inorganic products were carbon dioxide, sodium chloride, sulfate and thiosulfate. In the resin formula x stands for one or more atoms of sulfur. Macallum's work is reported in more detail in U. S. patents. (5, 6) He showed that resins could be made from a variety of nuclearly chlorinated aromatic