Functional Hierarchical Pores In Polymer Monoliths: Macromolecular Synthesis And Selective Removal Of Dyes

We describe the design of functional hierarchical pores in polymer monoliths on the basis of inverse, water-in-oil (w/o), high internal phase emulsions. The emulsion structure was formed and stabilized using functional microporous organic polymers as a Pickering agent, which not only provides an emulsion template to form the multiscale pores but also imparts photocatalytic activity to the polymer monoliths. Thus, inverse Pickering emulsions were obtained from styrene-water (2:8, v/v) with internal water droplets; then, a subsequent polymerization reaction created polymer monoliths in various shapes, which caused large interconnected pores as well as functional micropores primarily positioned at the interface. The monoliths absorbed a large amount of various solvents due to their amphiphilicity in the interior pore walls, and the combination of anionic moieties and pi-conjugation in the micropores allowed selective, rapid photocatalytic degradation toward positively charged organic dyes. The design concept presented here would be used toward the elimination of prevalent aromatic pollutants in aqueous environments and other purification/filtration systems.