Preparation of porous polymer materials using water‐in‐oil gel emulsions as templates

Abstract

Water-in-oil gel emulsions consisting of water and n-butyl acrylate were successfully prepared using N-3-hydroxybutylcarbonyl-L-isoleucylaminooctadecane and sorbitan monooleate (Span 80) as gelator and surfactant, respectively. Stable gel emulsions were formed using aqueous phase fractions (APFs) ranging from 10 to 90 vol%. Creaming, flocculation and coalescence were not observed. Low-temperature polymerization of the gel emulsions with a redox initiator gave the corresponding low-density, highly porous poly(n-butyl acrylate)s (PBAs). The microstructures of the PBAs were observed using scanning electron microscopy. All the porous PBAs comprised numerous spherical structures whose sizes could be controlled by adjusting the gel emulsion APF. The densities and porosities of the porous PBAs decreased and increased, respectively, with increasing APF. The absorption capacities of the porous PBAs in organic solvents were studied. The porous PBAs selectively absorbed kerosene from water instantly and the kerosene could then be recovered by physical compression of the PBAs. Further porous polymers were prepared from gel emulsions containing styrene, methyl methacrylate (MMA) or 2-ethylhexyl acrylate (EHA) as continuous oil phases. The order of absorption capacity and swelling ratio in kerosene was poly(EHA) > PBA ≫ poly(MMA). Porous copolymers were also prepared from gel emulsions containing a mixture of EHA and MMA as the oil phase. Their absorption and swelling in liquids could be controlled by changing the ratio of EHA and MMA in the gel emulsions. poly(EHA-co-MMA) (6:4) was the best polymer when absorption capacity, swelling ratio and durability were simultaneously considered.

Adsorption of acid orange 10 on cross-linked porous polyimide

“…where Q max (mg/g) is maximum adsorption quantity; K L (L/mg) is Langmuir constant; K F (mg/g (L/mg) 1/n ) and n are constants in Freundlich model. Equations (8) and (9) are linear form of Eqs. (6) and 7, respectively.…”

“…In the past few decades, porous polymers are often used as adsorbing materials in sewage treatment [7][8][9]. Among numerous porous polymers, porous polyimide (PI) network has attract much attention because of their excellent mechanical strength, thermal stability and chemical resistance compared with other porous polymers.…”

Fabrication of hierarchical porous polymer particles via blending strategy of water and polymer mixture

“…The prospective application of porous materials in a great variety of fields is widely recognized because of their valuable characteristics, 1, 2 such as high specific surface area, controllable mesopores, hollow architectures, feasible surface modifications and biocompatibility 3, 4 . It is generally considered that the appearance of nanopores with exactly controllable size and chemical activity 5, 6 leads to a variety of properties 7, 8 .…”

Open Porous Composite Monoliths for Biomedical Applications via Photocrosslinking of Low Internal Phase Nano-Emulsion Templates

“…On the other hand, the photoinitiated polymerization route towards porous polymer structures has been implemented in several studies [28][29][30][31][32][33] where high internal phase emulsions were used as templates. Although using high internal phase emulsions brings several sought-after structural properties, such as high porosity and degree of pores interconnectivity, it also shows some drawbacks, such as poor mechanical strength and, more importantly, the polymer structure mainly acts as a support or scaffold for postprocessing functionalization.…”