Morphology and properties of microcellular foams by high internal phase emulsion polymerization: Effect of emulsion compositions

Regular, spherical and isotropic open-microcellular foams having low density were prepared by the high internal phase emulsion (HIPE) polymerization mainly composed of styrene monomer and water. The effects of polymerization conditions, such as the content of water, divinylbenzene as a crosslinking agent and dodecane as a chain transfer agent, were investigated based on the cell size and foam properties. The microstructural morphology was, observed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the compression modulus of the foam was evaluated using compression test. The dropwise feeding of the aqueous phase into the oil phase was more effective than the batch feeding in producing the uniform and stable foam. Agitation speed and surfactant strongly influenced on the cell size and the window size between water droplets. Introduction of chain transfer agent increased the cell size, whereas it decreased the window size. Compression modulus increased with the crosslinking agent, but decreased with the chain transfer agent.