Hierarchically porous polyHIPEs fabricated via ex-situ swelling strategy towards supports for noble-metal Ag nanoparticles

Abstract

This work demonstrates an ex-situ swelling strategy for fabrication of the robust hierarchically porous polyHIPE. Specially, a cationic polyHIPE was prepared by copolymerization of 2-(methacryloyloxy) ethyltrimethylammonium chloride, styrene and divinylbenzene within a water-in-oil (w/o) high internal phase emulsion (HIPE). The hierarchically porous polyHIPE was achieved via simply swelling the polyHIPE in decane at 70 °C, and subsequent removal of the solvent at room temperature. There were large amounts of small pores found on the void wall surface. Compared with the hierarchically porous polyHIPE fabricated with decane as porogen (in-situ swelling, conventional route), the ex-situ swelling strategy endowed the materials semblable complex pore morphology but much less damage to its compression performance. The young's modulus of the hierarchically porous polyHIPE herein was 37% higher than that obtained by a conventional way. Afterwards, the hierarchically porous polyHIPE was utilized as a carrier for AgNPs (AgNPs@polyHIPE). The AgNPs@polyHIPEs exhibited eminent catalytic activity and recyclability for the reduction of the rhodamine B. Thereby, a facile approach for preparation of high strength and hierarchically porous polyHIPE was presented, and the resulted polyHIPE can be an ideal support for noble metal nanoparticle catalysts.