A new indane containing unsymmetrical diamine monomer (3) was synthesized. This diamine monomer leads to a number of novel semifluorinated poly (ether imide)s when reacted with different commercially available dianhydrides like benzene-1,2,4,5-tetracarboxylic dianhydride (PMDA), benzophenone-3,3',4,4'-tetracarboxylic dianhydride (BTDA), 4,4'-(hexafluoroisopropylidene)diphthalic anhydride (6FDA), 4,4'-oxydiphthalic anhydride (ODPA), and 4,4'-(4,4'-Isopropylidenediphenoxy)bis(phthalic anhydride) (BPADA) by thermal imidization route. All the poly(ether imide)s showed excellent solubility in several organic solvents such as N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP), N, N-dimethylformamide (DMF), N, N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc), tetrahydrofuran (THF), chloroform (CHCl3) and dichloromethane (DCM) at room temperature. These light yellow poly (ether imide)s showed very low water absorption (0.19-0.30%) and very good optical transparency. Wide angle X-ray diffraction measurements revealed that these polymers were amorphous in nature. The polymers exhibited high thermal stability up to 526 degrees C in nitrogen with 5% weight loss, and high glass transition temperature up to 265 degrees C. The polymers exhibited high tensile strength up to 85 MPa, modulus up to 2.5 GPa and elongation at break up to 38%, depending on the exact polymer structure. (C) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 112: 3640-3651, 2009