Nanostructured Polymers Prepared Using a Self-Assembled Nanofibrillar Scaffold as a Reverse Template

Abstract

We describe the preparation of nanostructured polymeric materials by polymerizing a monomer within a scaffold composed of self-assembled nanofibrils. 1,3:2,4-Dibenzylidene sorbitol (DBS) is an inexpensive sugar derivative that can form nanofibrillar networks in a variety of organic solvents at relatively low concentrations. Here, we induce DBS nanofibrils in styrene and then thermally initiate the free-radical polymerization of the monomer. The polymerization proceeds without any evidence of macroscopic phase separation, ultimately yielding a transparent solid of polystyrene. Within this material, intact DBS nanofibrils (diameter 10-100 nm) are preserved, as shown by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The DBS fibrils can also be subsequently extracted from the polymer, leaving behind a network of nanoscale pores. The porosity of the resulting polymer has been characterized by the BET technique.

1,3:2,4-Dibenzylidene-d-sorbitol (DBS) and its derivatives – efficient, versatile and industrially-relevant low-molecular-weight gelators with over 100 years of history and a bright future

“…16). 89 In a similar manner, Lai et al demonstrated that the gelation of DBS in methyl (methacrylate) (MMA), a hydrophilic monomer, takes a longer time to attain equilibrium than in hydrophobic styrene due to hydrogen bonding interactions between DBS and the MMA monomer phase. 78,87 Lai and Tseng demonstrated the polymerization of styrene using DBS as a template.…”

Highly Conductive Ionic-Liquid Gels Prepared with Orthogonal Double Networks of a Low-Molecular-Weight Gelator and Cross-Linked Polymer

“…[35][36][37] On the other hand, there are several reports on polymerizing organogels with low-molecular-weight gelators that employed monomer solutions as solvents, and produced a solid polymer (rather than a gel), embedded with self-assembled networks of low-molecularweight gelators. [38][39][40] To our knowledge, there is no report describing a heterogeneous doublenetwork gel containing a self-assembled network of low-molecular-weight gelators and a cross- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 5 linked polymer network. In the present study, we prepare conductive DN ionogels using the molecular self-assembly of low-molecular-weight gelators (first network) and a cross-linked polymer network (second network), and revealed the correlations between mechanical properties and the ionic conductivity.…”

Synthesis and Characterization of Polystyrene with DBS Networks

“…Our previous study15 shows that the synthesized PS contains DBS nanofibrillar networks, with the diameter of the nanofibrils measuring from 10 to 100 nm, as observed by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Here, we performed the swelling ratio experiment to examine whether the amounts of DBS would affect the cross‐linking density of the PS samples; PS samples with different DBS contents could be totally dissolved in toluene.…”

“…The resulting DBS networks consist of nanofibrils ranging from 10 nm to 0.8 µm in diameter, as measured by electron microscopy. In our recent research,15 DBS organogels could be used as self‐assembled nanotemplates to prepare porous materials by polymerizing the monomer and removing the fibrils.…”