Effect of Porosity and Organocaly Level on the Ion-exchange Capacity of polyHIPE Membrane

Highly open-porous vinylbenzyl chloride/divinylbenzene (VBC/DVB) polyHIPE membrane containing various amounts of Cloisite30B (C30B) were synthesized successfully via polymerization of an concentrated or high internal phase emulsion (HIPE).Amination process via using aqueous trimethylamine was applied to obtain a functionalized porous anion-exchange nanocomposite membrane. The exchange capacity of nanocomposite membrane was determined by titration procedure. The effects of organoclay content and foam porosity have been investigated on the basis of ion exchange capacity of resulting nanocomposite membrane. The results showed that the prepared membranes possessed an ion-exchange capacity in the range of 1.08-1.76 mequiv/g of dry membrane. Scanning electron micrographs exhibited an open-cell polyHIPE structure for all the organoclay-reinforced polyHIPE membranes. FTIR technique was also used to characterize the chemical structure of anion-exchange membrane.