Highly Open Porous Emulsion‒Templated Monoliths: Effect of Electrolyte and Organoclay

Highly open porous polymer foams were prepared by polymerization of water-in-oil high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs) that contain styrene, acrylonitrile and divinylbenzene. The effect of electrolyte and two different contents of organo-modified montmorillonite (Cloisite30B, C30B) on the HIPE equilibrium torque values, an approximate characterization of HIPE viscosities, and the microstructure and properties of the resulting PolyHIPE foams were investigated. The results showed by adding electrolyte to the aqueoues phase of the emulsion, torque fluctuations decreased and the stability of the emulsion increased. Scanning electron micrographs exhibited an open-cell polyHIPE structure for all of the samples. The weigth-average diameter of the cells and intercellular windows of the foam without organoclay were 26.4μm and 7.7μm, respectively. The introduction of organoclay within the emulsion copolymer foam significantly decreased the mean size of cells and intercellular windows compared with the copolymer foam without reinforcement. According to compression results by using 1%wt C30B in the organic phase the Young’s module and crush strength of the sample increased about 33.5% and 171%, respectively.