Recently introduced �solvothermal� preparation of porous poly(divinylbenzenes) [1] employing high dilution of monomers with unusual porogenic solvent (mixture of tetrahydrofuran and water) produces materials with unique mesoporous morphology, diametrically differing from the microporous structure of other high-surface porous polymers. Investigation of their swollen-state morphology using inverse steric exclusion chromatography [2] shown, that their high pore volume in mesopore size region can't be compatible with the usual model of macroreticular polymers morphology consisting of clusters polymer microparticles formed by macrosyneresis. Stable, highly porous morphology of the �hydrothermally� prepared poly(divinylbenzenes) have to have rather a foam-like structure created by microsyneresis in which continuous polymer phase surrounds liquid porogene droplets expelled from the polymer gel. In this contribution will be discussed factors promoting the microsyneresis during divinylbenzene polymerization and mechanism of the mesoporous morphology formation even outside the �hydrothermal� conditions range. This allows production of novel class of functional polymers offering high supporting capacity together with good accessibility even for big molecules, independent on the nature of used reaction solvent. 1.Y.L. Zhang, S. Wei, F.J. Liu, Y.C. Du, S. Liu, Y.Y. Ji, T. Yokoi, T. Tatsumi, F.-S. Xiao, Nano Today 4 (2009) 135 2. S. Sterchele, P. Centomo, M. Zecca, L. Hankov�, K. Jer�bek, Micropor. Mesopor. Mater. 185 (2014) 26.

Formation of porous polymer morphology by microsyneresis during divinylbenzene polymerization

248th National Meeting (2014)

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