Acrylic acid "reversed" polyHIPEs

An oil-in-water high internal phase emulsion consisting of acrylic acid, water, and a crosslinker (N,N-methylene bisacrylamide) as the water phase, and toluene as the oil phase was successfully stabilised to sustain thermal initiation of radical polymerisation resulting in porous open-cellular monolithic material. The type of initiator used influenced the average pore size ranging from approx. 708 nm to approx. 1 087 nm, as determined by mercury porosimetry