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Surfactant-free oil-in-oil emulsion-templating of polyimide aerogel foams

  • Erin Farrell and Sadhan C. Jana EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: July 14, 2022
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International Polymer Processing
From the journal International Polymer Processing Volume 37 Issue 4

Abstract

A surfactant-free oil-in-oil emulsion-templating method is presented for fabrication of monolithic polyimide aerogel foams using monomer systems that produce fast sol–gel transition. An aerogel foam is a high porosity (∼90%) material with coexisting meso- and macropores inherent to aerogels with externally introduced micrometer size open cells (macrovoids) that are reminiscent of foams. The macrovoids are introduced in polyimide sol using surfactant-free emulsion-templating of droplets of an immiscible liquid that are stabilized against coalescence by fast sol–gel transition. Three immiscible liquids – cyclohexane, n-heptane, and silicone oil – are considered in this work for surfactant-free emulsion-templating. The aerogel foam monoliths, recovered by supercritical drying, exhibit smaller size macrovoids when n-heptane and cyclohexane are used as emulsion-templating liquid, while the overall porosity and the bulk density show weak dependence on the emulsion-templating liquid.

Keywords: aerogel foams; aerogels; emulsion-templating; mesoporous materials; polyimide; porous materials
Corresponding author: Sadhan C. Jana, School of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering, University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325-0301, USA, E-mail:

  1. Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.

  2. Research funding: This work was funded by Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation, National Science Foundation under grant number CMMI 1826030.

  3. Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding this article.

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Supplementary Material

The online version of this article offers supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/ipp-2022-4248).

Received: 2022-06-10
Accepted: 2022-06-27
Published Online: 2022-07-14
Published in Print: 2022-09-27

© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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  2. Editorial
  3. Special issue for John Vlachopoulos
  4. Review Article
  5. Calendering of thermoplastics: models and computations
  6. Special Issue Contributions
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  16. News
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https://doi.org/10.1515/ipp-2022-4248
Keywords for this article
aerogel foams; aerogels; emulsion-templating; mesoporous materials; polyimide; porous materials

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Editorial
  3. Special issue for John Vlachopoulos
  4. Review Article
  5. Calendering of thermoplastics: models and computations
  6. Special Issue Contributions
  7. Film casting of polycarbonate/multi-walled carbon nanotubes composites using ultrasound-assisted twin-screw extruder: experiment and simulation
  8. Effect of mixing conditions and polymer particle size on the properties of polypropylene/graphite nanoplatelets micromoldings
  9. Extrusion foaming of linear and branched polypropylenes – input of the thermomechanical analysis of pressure drop in the die
  10. Improving the thickness distribution of parts with hybrid thermoforming
  11. Synergistic material extrusion 3D-printing using core–shell filaments containing polycarbonate-based material with different glass transition temperatures and viscosities
  12. TPU-based porous heterostructures by combined techniques
  13. Surfactant-free oil-in-oil emulsion-templating of polyimide aerogel foams
  14. Factors determining the flow erosion/part deformation of film insert molded thermoplastic products
  15. The extrusion of EPDM using an external gear pump: experiments and simulations
  16. News
  17. PPS News
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