Biodiesel-assisted fabrication of porous polystyrene nanostructures and their excellent adsorption capacity

Porous polystyrene nanostructures (PPNs) were synthesized through a facile emulsion polymerization method with assistance from environmental biodiesel. Based on controlling experiments with different biodiesel masses or temperatures, when added 0.2 g biodiesel at 60 degrees C, the delicate equilibrium between the reaction and diffusion rates was found to contribute to the PPN formation. Diffusion-limited aggregation theory was introduced to explain the possible formation mechanism of the PPNs. Moreover, due to their small pore sizes (40-50 nm) and high specific surface areas (769.3 m(2)/g), the PPNs showed excellent adsorption efficiency in the cycled adsorption of phenol. The possible adsorption mechanism is that PPNs has abundant benzene ring and phenol to form pi-pi stacking, thus playing the role of adsorption phenol. In this paper, a novel method of fabricating polystyrene nanostructures assisted by biodiesel is provided, which has a certain guiding effect on adsorption of benzene rings in wastewater. [GRAPHICS] .