NICKEL INCORPORATION INTO A HOLLOW-FIBER MICROPOROUS POLYMER - A PREPARATION ROUTE FOR NOVEL HIGH-SURFACE-AREA NICKEL STRUCTURES

The incorporation of Ni metal into PolyHIPE (a generic hollow fibre po lymer produced by emulsion polymerisation) was attempted by both elect roless deposition and electrodeposition and the resulting composites w ere characterised by a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Energy D ispersive Analysis by X-ray (EDAX) analysis. The first method produced a conducting outer surface coating which did not penetrate significan tly into the interior of the polymer. Electroplating succeeded in grow ing Ni through the polymer cells and pores. Subsequent burning out of the polymer matrix resulted in a granular interconnected Ni structure with a specific surface area of 49.5 m(2) g(-1), suggesting that Ni co atings produced by this method could be an alternative to Raney-nickel coated electrodes. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved .