Porous polymeric monoliths: design and preparation towards environmental applications

Abstract

Polymeric monoliths are porous substrates comprised of suitable monomer(s) beside a crosslinking agent and a radical initiator. The polymerization reaction may be thermally or radiation initiated in a mold. They take the shape of continuous rods or columns upon preparation. These materials are porous substrates used to overcome some deficiencies that arose from using the corresponding traditional monoliths such as ceramic and metallic ones. Increasing the efficiency of the monolith can be achieved via grafting the surface. Functional groups on the monolithic surface can be introduced to boost the performance of the monolith. Immobilizing nanoparticles; mainly the metallic ones onto the surface of the polymeric monolith enhances the efficiency of these columns and expands their application fields. Depositing the metal nanoparticles takes place via in-situ reduction of metal nanoparticles from their precursor salts or via ex-situ loading of previously prepared nanoparticles. There are various applications for polymeric monoliths; separation of proteins, small and large molecules can be mentioned. Monoliths are used in chromatographic separation applications beside catalytic implications. These monoliths represent the stationary phase. For expanding the separation application, polymeric monoliths can be applied in electrochromatographic separations. Besides, catalytic reactions can take place inside these monolithic rods.