Water‐swellable hydrophobic porous copolymer resins based on divinylbenzene and acrylonitrile. I. Water‐swelling behavior

Abstract

Hydrophobic porous copolymer resins based on divinylbenzene (DVB) and acrylonitrile (AN) could be prepared as directly swellable in water by using purified DVB (98.8%) and technical DVB (79.3%) in the presence of 1,2-dichloroethane as porogen. Compared with the resins based on DVB and methyl acrylate (MA/DVB resins), the AN/DVB resins thus obtained are waterswellable over a wider range of copolymer compositions, and the swelling ability of the AN/DVB resins in water was further confirmed by investigating the water-swelling behavior of the AN/DVB resins undergoing solvent treatment. The copolymer composition (AN and DVB contents) of the resins and the property of the porogen affect the waterswellable behavior of the AN/DVB resins profoundly. The results in this paper provide additional evidence to support the hypothesis that the swelling ability of a hydrophobic porous copolymer in water originates from the existence of the inner stresses in the strained polymer network of the resins and the weak interaction between polymer and water that is negligible in the case of a conventional hydrophobic polymer.

Water‐swellable hydrophobic porous copolymer resins based on divinylbenzene and acrylonitrile. II. Pore structure and adsorption behavior

“…In a previous paper we have shown that by copolymerization of purified DVB and AN with DCE as porogen, the resulting AN/DVB resins with DVB contents up to 60% (79% by weight) are water wettable or swellable 1. In Figure 1, the specific surface areas for the 40, 50, and 60% DVB resins are 575, 632, and 704 m 2 /g, with a porosity (pore volume) of 62.9% (1.38 mL/g), 59.2% (1.23 mL/g), and 55.6% (1.08 mL/g), respectively.…”

“…Copolymer resins were prepared, as described in the previous paper,1 by using purified DVB (98.8%) or technical DVB (79.3%), through a usual suspension copolymerization method 8, 9. For all resin samples the contents of DVB and AN in the starting reaction mixture are expressed as a mole percentage of the total amount of monomers.…”

“…The apparent density ( d a , g/mL) of resins in a dry state was determined by an improved mercury pycnometric method as described in our previous paper, with a relative error of measurement less than 1% 1, 10. The true density ( d t, g/mL) was also measured by the pycnometric method but with n ‐heptane as the confining fluid 10.…”

“…We have shown that hydrophobic porous resins based on divinylbenzene (DVB) and acrylonitrile (AN) could be prepared as water‐wettable or swellable by using purified DVB (98.8%) or technical DVB (79.3%) in the presence of 1,2‐dichloroethane (DCE) as porogen 1. Because of the stronger polarity of AN than methyl acrylate (MA), the AN/DVB resins thus obtained are water wettable in a wider range of copolymer compositions compared with the resins based on DVB and MA2 and will be more valuable from the point of practical application.…”

Swellable functional hypercrosslinked polymer networks for the uptake of chemical warfare agents

“…21 The swellability of HCPs can be affected by a number of parameters including the initial monomer concentration, 21 the extent of monomer crosslinking and the solvating state of the growing polymer chains (nature of reaction solvent). 31,32 The polarity of the polymer can also influence the swellability of the polymers. For instance, a HCP prepared via self-condensation using FeCl 3 demonstrated the liquid phase adsorption of hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF).…”