Fabrication and morphology of spongelike polymer material based on cross-linked sulfonated polystyrene particles
Xiang Ji1, Mozhen Wang, Dezhi Xu
1CAS Key Laboratory of Soft Matter Chemistry, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, P R China.
Abstract:
A novel spongelike polymer material has been fabricated by γ-ray induced polymerization of methylmethacrylate (MMA) in an emulsion containing cross-linked sulfonated polystyrene (CSP) particles. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images reveal that the spongelike structure is made up of interlinked nanosized PMMA particles with micrometer-sized CSP-PMMA particles embedded inside. The nitrogen adsorption isotherm discloses that the spongelike material has a high specific surface area of 29 m(2)/g and a narrow pore size distribution of 60-120 nm. The formation mechanism is discussed in this paper, which indicates that the key steps to form the spongelike material include a Pickering emulsion stabilized by the CSP particles, followed by the swelling process of MMA into these particles. This approach offers a more convenient alternative to prepare polymeric spongelike material without any etching procedure.
