g a dianhydride and an aromatic aliphatic or cycloaliphatic polyamine e g a diamine or triamine to form a polyamic acid followed by chemical or thermal cyclization to form the polyimide the disclosed polyimide binders may also be formed using reaction mixtures additionally containing aromatic polyanhydrides e g aromatic dianhydrides or from reaction mixtures containing copolymers derived from aromatic polyanhydrides e g aromatic dianhydrides and aliphatic or cycloaliphatic polyanhydrides e g aliphatic or cycloaliphatic dianhydrides for example about 5 to about 95 mole percent of the imide groups in the polyimide may be bonded to aliphatic or cycloaliphatic moieties and about 95 to about 5 mole percent of the imide groups may be bonded to aromatic moieties as a further example about 10 to about 90 mole percent of the imide groups may be bonded to aliphatic or cycloaliphatic moieties and about 90 to about 10 mole percent of the imide groups may be bonded to aromatic moieties as still further examples about 20 to about 80 mole percent of the imide groups may be bonded to aliphatic or cycloaliphatic moieties and about 80 to about 20 mole percent of the imide groups may be bonded to aromatic moieties or about 40 to about 60 mole percent of the imide groups may be bonded to aliphatic.