Scaffold emulsion templating

Polymer materials can easily be prepared from HIPEs if one or the other (or both) phases of the emulsion contain monomeric species. This process yields a range of products with widely differing properties. Additionally, as the concentrated emulsion acts as a scaffold or template, the microstructure of the resultant material is determined by the emulsion structure immediately prior to polymerisation. 

Emulsion templated scaffolds that include gelatin and glycosaminoglycans. Biomacromolecules, 9 (10), 2844-2856. 

Figure 20.1 SEM image of polymer scaffolds synthesized via (a) solvent casting (Boateng et al., 2009), (b) gas blowing, (c) emulsion templating (Janik and Marzec, 2015), (d) particle leaching (Janik and Marzec, 2015), and (e) electrospinning (Tseng et al., 2013).

C/W emulsions may be used as templates in the formation of porous polymers, as shown in Figure 5 (52). Polymerization takes plaee in the aqueous phase eontinuous channels between the CO2 droplets. The CO2 is vented and the water is removed to form a porous polymer. The median pore diameter on the order of 1 pm reflects the size of the original CO2 droplets. Polymer foams may be used as adsorbents, as substrates for catalysts, and as scaffolds in biomedical engineering. 

Macroporous solid foams produced in highly concentrated emulsions have been used as scaffolds for the preparation of hierarchically textured foams. Such materials possess structural organization at different size ranges mesopores are templated by supramolecular aggregates and macropores by the emulsion droplets. This strategy allows independent control of the mesopore and the macropore sizes. 

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