Abstract
Since polyimides were invented more than 30 years ago, several books dealing with the subject have been published [33, 34, 40u, 48b, 55, 64]. While some of these books [33–35] have very thorough and systematic coverage of the chemistry and general physical, mechanical, and electrical properties of polyimides, most of the literature [40, 48b, 64] is made up of collections of results derived from application-related research on various polyimides. None of the earlier treatises is totally devoted to an understanding of the underlying principles involved in just a single, important property such as the glass transition temperatures of polyimides.