(395a) Template Directed Synthesis and Characterization of Tunable Mesoporous Polymer Resins

Ordered organic porous materials possess tremendous potential to serve as radically advanced adsorbents in the field of bio-separations. These biocompatible organic mesoporous polymer replicas are expected to offer unique selectivities based both on size and surface-biomolecule affinity, ultrahigh capacity, reversible adsorption and rapid adsorption/desorption kinetics. In our current study we have synthesized a broad spectrum of ordered mesoporous phenol formaldehyde polymer resins by a facile nanocasting method with siliceous Mesocellular Foams (MCFs) as hard templates. A systematic investigation into the textural, structural and framework properties has been carried out through BET, SAXS, TEM, ¹³C NMR and FT-IR studies. Faithful replication of pore structure in the resultant mesoporous organic polymer materials by optimizing the resol precursor to template ratio and the thermopolymerization temperature has been achieved. Highly cross-linked phenolic resin frameworks with high surface areas (up to 1200 m²/g) and large pore volumes (up to 1. 3 cm³/g) have been synthesized. Well-defined gradation of pore characteristics in the replicas has been established by controlling the morphology of the inorganic hard template used. These interesting findings will be discussed in detail during the presentation.