סמינר לפיזיקה של מערכות ביולוגיות וחומרים רכים: Emulsion Templating: DIY Versatility for the Creative Design of Porous Polymers

Abstract:

Emulsion templating can be used to generate high-porosity, macroporous polymer monoliths with highly interconnected, micrometer-scale porous structures through polymerization in the external, continuous phase followed by removal of the internal, dispersed phase. Emulsion templating possesses, on one hand, the benefit of being seemly simple. This simplicity, however, belies its inherent versatility and a considerable parameter space that enables creative design of innovative new materials in terms of their macromolecular structures, their porous structures, and their properties. Approaching emulsion templating with a specific structure or application in mind can enable a do-it-yourself (DIY) outlook to imaginatively selecting the most appropriate emulsion type, stabilization strategy, polymerization mechanism, crosslinking strategy, and post-synthesis modification.

Recent work includes the various approaches used to generate hierarchically porous emulsion-templated polymer monoliths with micropores (< 2 nm), mesopores (between 2 and 50 nm), and/or macropores (> 50 nm). These approaches involved applying a variety of polymerization mechanisms to synthesize polymers of intrinsic microporosity, interpenetrating polymer networks, or block copolymers that then undergo post-synthesis modifications such as etching and/or hypercrosslinking. In addition, combining emulsion templating and foaming enabled the generation of micrometer- and millimeter-scale porosities. Similarly, various polymerization mechanisms (step-growth, radical, and ring-opening) were used to synthesize biodegradable, emulsion-templated scaffolds for tissue engineering or to synthesize emulsion-templated encapsulation systems (fertilizer or phase change materials for thermal energy storage and release).