Glycidyl Methacrylate-ethylene Glycol Dimethacrylate Copolymers with Varied Pore Structures Prepared with Different Reaction Parameters

Abstract

Copolymers based on glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) are considered attractive as sorbents because the epoxy groups can be easily converted into other groups. Studies involving the influence of the synthesis parameters on the morphological characteristics of these copolymers are scarce. This work investigates the synthesis of copolymers of poly(GMA-co-EGDMA) with different porosity degrees obtained by varying the synthesis parameters. GMA-EGDMA copolymers were synthesized by suspension polymerization employing varied conditions and characterized by measuring apparent density, surface area and pore volume distribution, optical and scanning electron microcopies, FT-IR, thermogravimetry and titration of epoxide rings. The copolymer with highest surface area and pore volume (260.4 m 2 /g and 0.5 cm 3 /g) was prepared employing cyclohexane as diluent, 80% EGDMA in monomeric composition and 100% of dilution degree. There was a relation between the epoxide content of the copolymers determined by titration and the residue content formed in the first decomposition stage.

Rational Design of Pore Parameters in Monodisperse Porous Poly(glycidyl methacrylate-co-ethylene glycol dimethacrylate) Particles Based on Response Surface Methodology

“…With increasing amount of GMA, the specific surface area is reduced. This general trend has been reported in literature [21,23,45]. However, through application of RSM the non-linearity of this effect (B 2 ) was shown.…”

“…Thereby the increase in size is mainly dependent of the ratio of the organic phase to the amount of seed particles [21,22]. It has been reported that the specific surface area, porosity and pore volume depend on the composition of the organic phase of seeded swelling polymerization [21,[23][24][25][26][27][28]. The organic phase usually consists of the monomers, here EDMA as crosslinker and GMA as monomer with a functional epoxide ring, and the porogen mixture, which are inert solvents, here cyclohexanol and toluene.…”

Regular Polymeric Microspheres with Highly Developed Internal Structure and Remarkable Thermal Stability

“…For this purpose, both aliphatic and aromatic multifunctional monomers, can be successfully employed. The use of bifunctional glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) with a tetrafunctional cross-linking monomer, i.e., ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) [ 37 , 48 , 49 ] as well as bifunctional 4-vinylpyridine [ 50 ] or GMA [ 38 ] with hexafunctional trimethylolpropane trimethacrylate as a cross-linking agent resulted in porous microspheres resistant to about 200 °C. The improvement in thermal stability was obtained by replacing the aliphatic cross-linker, i.e., EGDMA with the aromatic one, i.e., di(methacryloyloxymethyl)naphthalene [ 51 ] or by using two tetrafunctional monomers, such as DVB and (4,6-dimethyl-1,3-phenylene)dimethylene bis(2-methylprop-2-enoate) [ 52 ] or DVB and dimethacrylate derivatives of naphthalene and diphenylmethanone [ 43 ].…”

Influence of Textural Properties of Divinylbenzene Copolymers on the Immobilization of Lipase B from Candida antarctica

“…The copolymer beads were characterized through the determination of specific surface area, pore volume, and average pore diameter (BET analyzer, Micromeritics model ASAP 2020). The isotherms were plotted by correlating the amount of adsorbed gas on the copolymer particles (cm 3 /g -1 ) as a function of the relative pressure (P/P 0 ), employing the BET equation and the BJH method 28,29 . Apparent density of the particles was determined by the graduated cylinder method according to ASTM D1895 30 .…”

“…The Hildebrand solubility parameter, the square of the cohesive energy density, can be considered an indirect measurement of inter and intramolecular interactions between solvent and polymer molecules. The ratio between Hildebrand solubility parameters of the solvents (δs) and polymers (δp) can be used to predict whether a determined solvent is a solvating or non-solvating solvent of a determined polymer 29,40 . Several studies have indicated that the porosity characteristics of these copolymers is closely related to the thermodynamic relationship between the solubility parameters of solvents employed as porogenic agents and the polymeric chains formed during the polymerization [41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48] .…”