BICONTINUOUS MACROPOROUS MATERIALS FROM EPOXY RESIN-BASED MONOLITHS

Sammanfattning: In this project, hydrophilic bicontinuous microporous materials were synthesized via one‑pot polycondensation, using epoxy compounds and polyamines as the main monomer and curing agents. To achieve this goal, two approaches have been taken. In the first approach, monoliths were prepared by partial aminolysis of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) biopolyester by various polyamines under mild condition. The oligomers were then crosslinked by epoxy monomer to form porous rigid polymer structures. A two‑level full factorial screening design was established to investigation how the curing temperature, the amount of PHB, and the monolith loading affected the material morphology. In the second approach, monoliths were obtained by polycondensation of epoxy monomers and polyamines in presence of pore forming sol­vents. The morphology of final products was optimized by changing the polymer precursor compositions, or the pore-forming solvents. The specific surface areas of the materials were characterized by nitrogen cryo‑sorption and scanning electron microscopy was used to evalu­ate the monolith morphologies and skeleton structures. Chemical composition was explored by infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Finally, sample TEPIC100, having desired bicontinuous microporous scaffold, was in situ synthesized in a 1.0 mm i.d. surface-modified PEEK tubing.