Hierarchical Porous Polystyrene Monoliths from PolyHIPE

Xinjia Yang; Liangxiao Tan; Lingling Xia; Colin D Wood; Bien Tan

doi:10.1002/marc.201500235

Hierarchical Porous Polystyrene Monoliths from PolyHIPE

Macromol Rapid Commun. 2015 Sep;36(17):1553-8. doi: 10.1002/marc.201500235. Epub 2015 Jul 15.

Authors

Xinjia Yang¹, Liangxiao Tan¹, Lingling Xia¹, Colin D Wood², Bien Tan¹

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory for Large-Format Battery Materials and System, Ministry of Education, Hubei Key Laboratory of Material Chemistry and Service Failure, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China.
² CSIRO Manufacturing Flagship, Clayton, VIC, 3168, Australia.

PMID: 26178423
DOI: 10.1002/marc.201500235

Abstract

Hierarchical porous polystyrene monoliths (HCP-PolyHIPE) are obtained by hypercrosslinking poly(styrene-divinylbenzene) monoliths prepared by polymerization of high internal phase emulsions (PolyHIPEs). The hypercrosslinking is achieved using an approach known as knitting which employs formaldehyde dimethyl acetal (FDA) as an external crosslinker. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) confirms that the macroporous structure in the original monolith is retained during the knitting process. By increasing the amount of divinylbenzene (DVB) in PolyHIPE, the BET surface area and pore volume of the HCP-PolyHIPE decrease, while the micropore size increases. BET surface areas of 196-595 m(2) g(-1) are obtained. The presence of micropores, mesopores, and macropores is confirmed from the pore size distribution. With a hierarchical porous structure, the monoliths reveal comparable gas sorption properties and potential applications in oil spill clean-up.

Keywords: hierarchical porous structures; high internal phase emulsion; knitting; monoliths; sorption.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Emulsions
Microscopy, Electron, Scanning
Polystyrenes / chemistry*
Porosity

Substances

Emulsions
Polystyrenes