Gelled polymerizable microemulsions. 1. Phase behavior.
Microemulsions are gaining increasing importance as templates since a great deal is known about how to tune their structure and the size of the domains. The concept of synthesizing a bicontinuous high surface area polymer is well-known, by "arresting" the oil (water) phase and polymerizing the water (oil) phase. However, a general route for the 1:1 replication of the bicontinuous structure has not been found yet. Our approach to achieving this goal entails arresting the oil phase by gelling it, i.e., by forming an organogel, and polymerizing the aqueous phase. The ternary base system water-n-dodecane-Lutensol AO5 (technical-grade nonionic n-alkyl polyglycol ether with an average molecular structure of C(13/15)E(5)) was chosen, and the organogelator 12-hydroxyoctadecanoic acid (12-HOA) as well as a polymerizable aqueous phase containing the monomer N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAm) and the cross-linker N,N'-methylenebisacrylamide (BisAm) were added. To understand the influence of adding 12-HOA to the oil and NIPAM + BisAm to the aqueous phase on the phase behavior, phase diagrams were determined after each compositional change. The respective phase diagrams are presented and discussed in terms of their potential use as templates for new high surface area polymers.
Stubenrauch
Cosima
C
Schools of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering and of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland. cosima.stubenrauch@ucd.ie
Tessendorf
Renate
R
Strey
Reinhard
R
Lynch
Iseult
I
Dawson
Kenneth A
KA