Heat-induced bubble expansion as a route to increase the porosity of foam-templated bio-based macroporous polymers
File(s)Submitted version.pdf (4.93 MB)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Song, W
Barber, K
Lee, KY
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Macroporous polymers were prepared by mechanically frothing a bio-based epoxy resin and hardener mixture to first create air-in-resin liquid foams, followed by curing of these liquid foams. It was found that heating the air-in-resin liquid foams prior to their gelation decreased the viscosity of the resin mixture and increased the pressure of the air bubbles, leading to an isotropic expansion of the air bubbles. This resulted in an increase in the porosity of the resulting foam-templated macroporous polymers from 71% to 85%. Correspondingly, the compressive moduli (E) and strengths (σ) of the foam-templated macroporous polymers decreased from 231 MPa and 5.9 MPa, respectively, to 58 MPa and 1.9 MPa, respectively. This decrease is attributed to an increase in the porosity and pore throat frequency of the foam-templated macroporous polymers when heat was applied to the liquid foams. The deformation of the pores based on in situ SEM micro-compression test of the fabricated foam-templated macroporous polymers is also discussed.
Date Issued
2017-04-24
Date Acceptance
2017-04-23
Citation
Polymer, 2017, 118, pp.97-106
ISSN
0032-3861
Publisher
Elsevier
Start Page
97
End Page
106
Journal / Book Title
Polymer
Volume
118
Copyright Statement
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This manuscript is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Sponsor
EPSRC
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC)
Grant Number
EP/M012247/1
EP/M012247/1
Subjects
03 Chemical Sciences
09 Engineering
Polymers
Publication Status
Published