Silica microparticles pHIPE

Modification of pHIPE-g-PGMA with silica microparticles... 

The increase in surface area of the pHIPE is important to open up new application areas. One approach is to attach spherical particles to the surface of the monolithic material. This has been, for example achieved by electrostatic interaction between charged latex nanoparticles and a monolithic surface (62). In preliminary experiments we investigated if fimctional silica microparticles could be covalently adsorbed to the p(HIPE-g-GMA) surface so as to produce stable, functional pHIPE with an increased surface area. 

Samples of control (non-functionalized) pHlPE and pHIPE-GMA were added to vials containing 15% w/w modified sihca microparticles in methanol and THE. 10 drops of cone. HCl were added to each vial and the reactions were allowed to mn for 16 hours. Two types of silica particles were used (1) 3 pm spherical Si-Amine (Si(C3H6)NH2), and (2) 3 pm spherical Si-Thiol (Si(C3H6)SH). After the reaction time the samples were placed in a sonicator for 1 h to remove any unbound Si particles. 

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