Use of a Self-Assembling Organogel as a Reverse Template in the Preparation of Imprinted Porous Polymer Films

Abstract

The concept of reverse templating of an organogel to form imprinted porous divinylbenzene polymer films with submicrometer channels is demonstrated. The organogel comprising a 1:1 molar ratio of two organogelators, that is, bis(2-ethylhexyl) sodium sulfosuccinate and 4-chlorophenol, was formed in divinylbenzene. The gel was cast as a thin film before UV polymerization of the solvent, and the organogelators were later removed by simple washing with water and isooctane. The integrity of the fiber bundles of the organogel was preserved during polymerization, and an exact hollow replica was obtained after the organogelators were leached away. It is easily possible to imprint gel fiber bundle structures into polymeric films through this technique. The gel can also be formed on macroporous substrates to yield supported thin porous polymeric films. With the incorporation of functional nanoparticles in AOT inverse micelles and hence the organogel, nanoparticle-containing porous polymer films exhibiting luminescence or magnetic properties are envisioned.

Highly Conductive Ionic-Liquid Gels Prepared with Orthogonal Double Networks of a Low-Molecular-Weight Gelator and Cross-Linked Polymer

“…[35][36][37] On the other hand, there are several reports on polymerizing organogels with low-molecular-weight gelators that employed monomer solutions as solvents, and produced a solid polymer (rather than a gel), embedded with self-assembled networks of low-molecularweight gelators. [38][39][40] To our knowledge, there is no report describing a heterogeneous doublenetwork gel containing a self-assembled network of low-molecular-weight gelators and a cross- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 5 linked polymer network. In the present study, we prepare conductive DN ionogels using the molecular self-assembly of low-molecular-weight gelators (first network) and a cross-linked polymer network (second network), and revealed the correlations between mechanical properties and the ionic conductivity.…”

Expanding the scope of gels – combining polymers with low-molecular-weight gelators to yield modified self-assembling smart materials with high-tech applications

“…25 The groups of John, Pina and Steed have similarly investigated the formation of nanoporous membranes of polymerised divinylbenzene and methacrylates. [26][27][28] In eye-catching work, Mésini and co-workers produced polymer resins in which the pores did retain their helicity by using 3,5-bis(5-hexylcarbamoylpentyloxy) benzoic acid (BHPB), which formed helical tape-like nanostructures in polymerisable ethylene glycol diacrylate. 29 Washing the polymer with DCM removed BHPB, and subsequent TEM analysis showed the presence of helical pores ( Fig.…”

L-Phenylalanine Based Low-Molecular-Weight Efficient Organogelators and Their Selective Gelation of Oil from Oil/Water Mixtures

“…As a class of soft materials, supramolecular organogels spontaneously formed by self-assembly of low molecular weight organogelators (LMOGs) at fairly low concentration have received increased attention in recent years due to their potential applications in drug delivery, gel electrolyte based batteries, and templates for the fabrication of mesoporous polymer materials and for nanoscale inorganic material syntheses and so on (1)(2)(3)(4)(5). Molecules of LMOGs create entangled supramolecular networks with solvent molecules entrapped inside by self-assembly of monomeric species into fibrous, tubular, or helical structures through specific non-covalent intermolecular interactions, including hydrogen bonding, π-π stacking, and van der Waals interactions and other weak interactions (6)(7)(8).…”