Pluronic amphiphilic block copolymers consist of hydrophilic poly(ethylene oxide) blocks and hydrophobic poly(propylene oxide) blocks. Pluronics are commercially available and can be obtained with different block ratios. By changing Pluronic concentration at a constant water/oil ratio, a variety of mesophase structures such as lamellar, inverse/direct hexagonal, gyroid, and micellar cubic are obtained through self-assembly. Mesophases are thermodynamically stable systems with length scales in the order of 2-50 nm, and can be used as templates to produce mesoporous materials. Our goal is to incorporate monomers in the oil phase and use mesopahses as templates for the synthesis of mesoporous polymers. Such porous structures have lots of applications in separation, adsorption, pharmaceutical, and drug delivery. We have shown that mesophase structure remains intact upon thermal polymerization due to slow kinetics of Pluronic block copolymers and trapping of structure in the crosslinking process. Obtained mesoporous polymers have pores less than 2 nm that makes them highly demanding for mentioned applications.

Self-assembly of pluronic block copolymers at oil/water interface

256th National Meeting (2018)

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