Aryl acrylate porous functional polymer supports from water‐in‐oil‐in‐water multiple emulsions

Abstract

Porous functional polymer supports are a class of material of wide interest due to the possibility of immobilising reactive species. A simplified procedure was applied for the preparation of porous polymer supports using a water‐in‐oil‐in‐water multiple emulsion. The primary emulsion was a high internal phase emulsion, having a volume fraction of water phase up to 95%. Two reactive acrylates, namely 4‐nitrophenyl acrylate and 2,4,6‐trichlorophenyl acrylate, were (separately) incorporated in the oil phase in order to obtain porous reactive polymer supports. Both acrylates were crosslinked with either divinylbenzene or ethylene glycol dimethacrylate, and beads of size ca 60 µm were obtained after the polymerisation of droplets suspended into the secondary aqueous phase. In the case of 4‐nitrophenyl acrylate and divinylbenzene as a crosslinker, particles with a star shape, the core being ca 60 µm in diameter and the arms ca 180 µm in length, were obtained. The polymers were functionalised with morpholine, tris(2‐aminoethyl)amine, piperidine or piperazine yielding supports with loadings of reactive groups of between 2.6 and 6.6 mmol g−1. The results show that multiple emulsions can be precursors for porous polymer preparation. Copyright © 2007 Society of Chemical Industry

Functional Porous Polymers by Emulsion Templating: Recent Advances

“…[ 68 ] Beaded polyHIPEs have been prepared from the reactive monomers 4-nitrophenyl acrylate (NPA) or 2,4,6-trichlorophenyl acrylate (TCPA). [ 69 ] These monomers have been shown to be capable of being functionalized with a range of nucleophiles [ 70 ] and NPA based polyHIPE beads have also been used to purify contaminated water. [ 71 ] Beaded porous polymer structures were produced by suspension polymerization of a w/o/w multiple emulsion, which contained both organic and water soluble initiators and a redox initiator system (for NPA containing emulsions).…”

“…NPA could be incorporated at levels between 25-60 mol% and TCPA between 50-60 mol% of the monomer mixture. [ 69 ] PolyHIPE beads were spherical with diameters between 49-105 μ m when the monomers TCPA or ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) were used, although rather peculiar star shaped beads, with a core of diameter 57-71 μ m and arms protruding from the core with diameter 127-285 μ m, were observed with NPA and divinylbenzene (DVB). [ 69 ] NPA polyHIPE beads were successfully functionalized with several nucleophiles with loadings ranging from 2.6-6.6 mmol g − 1 .…”

“…[ 69 ] Recently, a new technique has been developed for the preparation of polyHIPE beads. Utilising the fast rate of photopolymerisation, HIPE droplets prepared using a microfl uidic device were subsequently polymerised, producing monodisperse beaded poly-HIPE materials (see Scheme 2 and Figure 8 a ).…”

“…In addition, polyHIPEs can incorporate a range of different functional monomers including VBC, [ 76 ] GMA, [ 8,9 , 11 ] and NPA. [ 69,70 ] These subsequently can be functionalised for a variety of purposes, i.e., enzyme immobilisation or water purifi cation. [ 38 b, 71 ] There has been an increase in interest in functionalised monoliths due to the development of polymer assisted solution phase (PASP) chemistry.…”

Porous polymer particles—A comprehensive guide to synthesis, characterization, functionalization and applications

“…Particulate poly(HIPE) with regular shapes has been a challenge for scientists due to the difficulties faced during forming HIPE droplets in a second continuous phase (double emulsion). Nevertheless there are few reports in patents [34][35] and in open literature [36][37][38][39] of polymerizing HIPE formulations in a suspension media yielding polydisperse beads with ultra large pore sizes (Fig. 4(A)).…”