Aryl acrylate porous functional polymer supports from water-in-oil-in-water multiple emulsions

Porous functional polymer supports are a class of material of wide interest due to the possibility of immobilising reactive species. A simplified procedure was applied for the preparation of porous polymer supports using a water-in-oil-in-water multiple emulsion. The primary emulsion was a high internal phase emulsion, having a volume fraction of water phase up to 95%. Two reactive acrylates, namely 4-nitrophenyl acrylate and 2,4,6-trichlorophenyl acrylate, were (separately) incorporated in the oil phase in order to obtain porous reactive polymer supports. Both acrylates were crosslinked with either divinylbenzene or ethylene glycol dimethacrylate, and beads of size ca 60 m were obtained after the polymerisation of droplets suspended into the secondary aqueous phase. In the case of 4-nitrophenyl acrylate and divinylbenzene as a crosslinker, particles with a star shape, the core being ca 60 m in diameter and the arms ca 180 m in length, were obtained. The polymers were functionalised with morpholine, tris(2-aminoethyl)amine, piperidine or piperazine yielding supports with loadings of reactive groups of between 2.6 and 6.6 mmol g-1. The results show that multiple emulsions can be precursors for porous polymer preparation