Copolycondensation of isophthalic acid (IPA)/terephthalic acid (TPA) with various combinations of 2,2-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl)propane (BPA) and hydroquinones (HQs) or bisphenols (BPs) was conducted to study the effects of the compositions of IPA/TPA and of BPA/HQs or BPA/BPs upon the reaction. Different from homopolycondensation of each of diol components examined where most of the reaction was facilitated by lower contents of IPA at about 70 mol %, the copolycondensation was influenced by a combination of diol components. With chlorohydroquinone (ClHQ) or bis(4-hydroxyphenyl)sulfone (BPS) having a polar chlorine or sulfonyl substituent, the reaction proceeded most satisfactorily at IPA/TPA = 30/70, whereas it was IPA/TPA = 50/50 for the reaction with nonpolar methyl substituted methylhydroquinone (MeHQ). The reaction with 2,2-bis(3,5-dichloro-4-hydroxyphenyl)propane (TC-BPA), despite having polar chlorine substituents in TC-BPA, was not affected by IPA/TPA compositions. Alternatively, from the viewpoint of the compositions of diol components, the reactions containing 30-50 mol % of HQs or BPS yielded better results except for the reaction of IPA/TPA = 70/30, in which higher contents of MeHQ was more favorable. On the basis of sequence distributions of diol components in the resultant copolymers determined by NMR, compositions of IPA/TPA or diol components and combinations of the diols producing random copolymers yielded better results in copolycondensation. (C) 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.