STUDY OF THE FORMATION OF THE OPEN CELLULAR MORPHOLOGY OF POLY(STYRENE DIVINYLBENZENE) POLYHIPE MATERIALS BY CRYO-SEM/

The formation of the interconnected morphology of open-cell styrene/di vinylbenzene (DVB) PolyHIPE copolymers has been studied by scanning el ectron microscopy on frozen HIPE samples at different stages of polyme risation, a technique known as cryo-SEM. The transition from discrete emulsion droplets to interconnected cells was observed to occur around the gel-point of the polymerising system. This would suggest that the formation of holes between adjacent cells is due to the contraction o f the thin monomeric films on conversion of monomer to polymer, as a r esult of the higher density of the latter.