Polystyrene Macroporous Magnetic Nanocomposites Synthesized through Deep Eutectic Solvent-in-Oil High Internal Phase Emulsions and Fe₃O₄ Nanoparticles for Oil Sorption

Abstract

In this work, we report a nonaqueous one-step method to synthesize polystyrene macroporous magnetic nanocomposites through high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs) formulated with the deep eutectic solvent (DES) composed of urea:choline chloride (U:ChCl, in a 2:1 molar ratio) as the internal phase and co-stabilized with mixtures of Span 60 surfactant and non-functionalized magnetite nanoparticles (Fe 3 O 4 NPs). The porous structure and the magnetic and lipophilic properties of the nanocomposite materials were easily tailored by varying the amount of Fe 3 O 4 NPs (0, 2, 5 and 10 wt %) and the surfactant Span 60 (0, 5, 10, and 20 wt %) used in the precursor emulsion. The resultant nanocomposite polyHIPEs exhibit high sorption capacity toward different oils (hexane, gasoline, and vegetable oil) due to their high porosity, interconnectivity, and hydrophobic surface. It was observed that the oil sorption capacity was improved when the amount of surfactant decreased and Fe 3 O 4 NPs increased in HIPE formulation. Therefore, polyHIPE formulated with 5 and 10 wt % Span 60 and Fe 3 O 4 NPs, respectively, showed the highest oil sorption capacities of 4.151, 3.556, and 3.266 g g –1 for gasoline, hexane, and vegetable oil, respectively. In addition, the magnetic monoliths were reused for more than ten sorption/desorption cycles without losing their oil sorption capacity.

Preparation of a Porous Protein-Based Composite Material by In Situ Polymerization of Pickering High Internal Phase Emulsion for Adsorption of Lead Ions

“…However, these surfactants themselves are somewhat toxic and their removal requires a large amount of solvent for extraction, which limits their application in HIPE polymers. To stabilize HIPEs, researchers began testing solid inorganic nanoparticles made from nano-SiO 2 , 14 TiO 2 , 15 graphene oxide, 16 and Fe 3 O 4 ; 17 however, the inorganic nanoparticles often required modification, which can be a cumbersome operation. Therefore, it is of great importance and value to develop solid nanoparticle stabilizers for HIPEs that are environmentally friendly, are easy to apply, and have strong emulsion stability and good biocompatibility as templates to prepare porous adsorbent polymer materials with open pore structures.…”

Ring-opening polymerization of emulsion-templated deep eutectic system monomer for macroporous polyesters with controlled degradability

“…Macroporous polymers have found widespread use in various advanced applications, such as biomaterials, 1 tissue engineering scaffolds, 2,3 separation membranes, 4 energy storage, 5 and substrates facilitating specific surface-related phenomena. 6,7 These applications stem from the enlarged surface area and the three-dimensional arrangement of interconnected pores, which enable efficient mass transport and specialized interfaces for reactions and interactions with target molecules.…”

Highly Porous Polymer Beads Coated with Nanometer-Thick Metal Oxide Films for Photocatalytic Oxidation of Bisphenol A

“…Among the approaches to generate porous polymer matrices, polymerization of high internal phase emulsion templates (referred to as polyHIPEs) has lately gained particular attention. , The reason for its popularity is that both the chemistry of the polymer backbone and the porous properties, i.e., pore volume, pore size distribution, and degree of three-dimensional (3D) interconnectivity, can be easily tuned and controlled . The polyHIPE (PH) matrices are also very useful for obtaining porous nanocomposites and hybrids. , While early efforts focused primarily on improving the mechanical properties of PH matrices, − more recent examples increasingly aim to add functions to PH such as conductive, − magnetic, − thermo-insulative, , catalytic, − or capture properties, − to name a few, by obtaining PH nanocomposites. A number of methods have been developed to incorporate MO into PHs, which can be divided into two main strategies.…”