Hydrophilic Modification Of Porous Epoxy Monoliths Via Pore Surface-Initiated Graft Polymerization

Because of the outstanding performance of porous materials, they were becoming one kind of functional material which has widespread application. In this dissertation, a porous epoxy monolith was firstly prepared via a concentrated emulsion polymerization, then, the pore surfaces of the monolith were modified. As a result, the application field of the modified porous epoxy monolith would expand. The main work of the dissertation was as following:1. Preparation the porous epoxy monoliths via a concentrated emulsion template. The effect of the emulsifier content, the pre-curing time of the continuous phase and the colloidal silica amount of the aqueous phase on the stability of the epoxy concentrated emulsion and pore structure of the porous epoxy monolith were studied by scanning electron microscopy. The emulsifier, the pre-curing of the continuous phase and the colloidal silica in the aqueous phase all did attribution to the stability of the concentrated emulsion, the change of their amount would affect the pore structure of the porous epoxy monolith. 2. Hydrophilic modification was carried out to porous epoxy monoliths via pore surface-initiated graft polymerization. The initiator was immobilized on the pore surface by swelling the porous epoxy monolith with acetone solution of initiator, then the acrylic acid polymerized on the pore surface. The solvent used for swelling, the curing time of the porous epoxy monolith and the swelling time were also studied. Different swelling solvent got the different modification result; the longer the curing time of the porous epoxy monolith got the worse the modification result; the modification result was good as the swelling time last long. The morphology and the hydrophilic property of unmodified and modified porous epoxy monoliths were studied contrastively by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, energy-dispersive spectrometer, mercury instrusion porosimetry measurement, content angle measurement and water absorption. Compare with the unmodified porous epoxy monolith, the pore surface of the modified porous epoxy monolith was covered by poly acrylic acid layer, and the hydrophilic property of the modified porous epoxy monolith was improved obviously.