New pathways to polymethacrylimide (PMI) foams

High-performance polymer foams such as polymethacrylimides are used to alleviate greenhouse gas emissions by decreasing the overall weight of vehicles. While these non-toxic, lightweight polymethacrylimide foams are time-proven products, their current production process faces several challenges, including toxic and expensive starting materials, insufficient knowledge into their formation mechanism as well as the requirement of high processing temperatures. The current PhD thesis addresses these problems by extending the base of suitable starting materials, developing advanced synthetic routes and establishing an in-depth understanding of the imidization mechanism to tune the thermal and mechanical properties of these versatile materials.