Hypercrosslinked polymeric foams prepared by Friedel-Crafts polycondensation
Porous materials are widely used in industry and government for chemical separations, processing and monitoring, environmental cleanup and remediation, energy efficiency, and conservation. Porous materials used in these applications include: foams, filters, membranes, absorbents, ion exchange resins, molecular sieves, zeolites, catalyst supports, sensors, and electrodes. Organic analogues to inorganic zeolites would be a significant step forward in engineered porous materials and would provide advantages in range, selectivity, tailorability and processing. A novel process for preparing hypercross linked polymeric foams has been developed via a Friedel-Crafts polycondensation reaction. A series of rigid hypercrosslinked foams have been prepared using simple rigid polyaromatic hydrocarbons such as benzene, biphenyl, mterphenyl, diphenylmethane, and polystyrene, with p-dichloroxylene as the crosslinking agent. After drying the gels, the resulting foams are robust and rigid; densities range from 0.3 to 0.g/cc. Nitrogen adsorption studies have shown that by judiciously selecting monomers and crosslinking agent along with the level of crosslinking, the pore size and distribution along with total surface area of the foam can be tailored. Surface areas range from 160 to 1,200 m{sup 2}/g with pore sizes ranging from 6{Angstrom} to 250{Angstrom}. Further evidence of this has been confirmed by high resolution TEM.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-36
- OSTI ID:
- 197220
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR--95-3568; CONF-960376--3; ON: DE96005356
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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