Silica-Supported Styrene-Co-Divinylbenzene Pickering Emulsion Polymerization: Tuning Surface Charge and Hydrophobicity by pH and Co-Aid Adsorption

Benoit Fouconnier (1) , M. Ali Aboudzadeh (2) , Francisco López-Serrano (3)

1 Universidad Veracruzana
2 IPREM - Institut des sciences analytiques et de physico-chimie pour l'environnement et les materiaux
3 UNAM - Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México = National Autonomous University of Mexico

In this work, polymerizations of styrene (St) in the presence of divinylbenzene (DVB) as a crosslinking agent and sodium 4-vinylbenzenesulfonate (VBS) have been performed in Pickering emulsions, using silica nanoparticles (SNps) as stabilizing agents and ammonium persulfate as a hydrophilic initiator. In oil-in-water Pickering emulsions with alkaline continuous phase (pH = 9) at 1, 2, and 3 wt% DVB (relative to St), polydisperse spheroid copolymer submicronic nanoparticles were obtained. Comparatively, polymerizations performed in Pickering emulsions with acidic continuous phase (pH = 5) allowed preparing St-co-DVB microspheres with core–shell structures at 1 wt% DVB and St-co-DVB hybrid monoliths with bi-continuous morphologies at 2 and 3 wt% DVB. It is noteworthy that this work reports Pickering emulsion polymerization as a new strategy for preparing hybrid percolated scaffolds with bi-continuous porosity. The proposed mechanisms originated by pH, DVB, and VBS and the drastic impact caused on the final morphology obtained, either hybrid particles or monoliths, are discussed herein.

Mots clés: Pickering emulsion polymerization; microspheres; hybrid monoliths; Microspheres

Domaines: Matériaux; Polymères; Chimie théorique et/ou physique; Chimie analytique

Benoit Fouconnier, M. Ali Aboudzadeh, Francisco López-Serrano. Silica-Supported Styrene-Co-Divinylbenzene Pickering Emulsion Polymerization: Tuning Surface Charge and Hydrophobicity by pH and Co-Aid Adsorption. Processes, 2021, 9 (10), pp.1820. ⟨10.3390/pr9101820⟩. ⟨hal-03418825⟩