Porous functional poly(unsaturated polyester-co-glycidyl methacrylate-co-divinylbenzene) polyHIPE beads through w/o/w multiple emulsions: preparation, characterization and application

Poly(unsaturated polyester-co-glycidyl methacrylate-co-divinylbenzene) poly high internal phase emulsion (HIPE) beads were synthesized via water-in-oil-in-water (w/o/w) multiple emulsions. HIPEs were prepared by using a commercial unsaturated polyester resin (UPR) and a mixture of glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) and divinylbenzene (DVB) as the cross-linker. The external surfactant was found to be a strong influence on the morphology of the beads. The porosity and the pore morphology of the resulting polyHIPE beads were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) molecular adsorption method, respectively. Post-functionalization of the beads was carried out with multifunctional amines such as 1,4-ethylenediamine (EDA), 1,6-hexamethylenediamine (HMDA) and 4-aminosalicylic acid (ASA). Elemental analysis was used to confirm the functionalization. Resulting functional beads were tested on the adsorption of Ag(I), Cu(II), and Cr(III) under non-competitive conditions and atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) was used to calculate the adsorption capacities. The maximum adsorption capacities of the functional beads were found to be decreasing in the order of Ag(I)>Cu(II)>Cr(III).