Synthesis of porous polymers utilizing crystallization of hydrophobic long alkyl side chains

Porous polymers with crystalline structure of hydrophobic long alkyl side chains were prepared by drying the gels synthesized by copolymerizing stearyl acrylate (SA) or stearyl methacrylate (SMA) with ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) as the cross-linker. With dimethylformamide as a solvent and at selected concentrations of a primary monomer (SA or SMA) and EGDMA. gels consisted of micro polymer particles surd solvent phases which were formed by the phase separation in the polymerization process were obtained. Furthermore, it was confirmed by DSC measurements that the hydrophobic long side chains of SA or SMA in the gels were crystallized. The porous polymers with low bulk densities were obtained by drying the gels below the melting temperature of the crystalline structure of long side chains of SA or SMA. On the other hand, the drying temperature above the melting temperature formed shrunk polymers with high bulk densities. These phenomena suggest that the porous structure or the bulk density of dried polymer can be controlled easily by the drying temperature.