Morphology and properties of gels and xerogels based on the high-molecular-mass poly(acrylonitrile)-propylene carbonate system

Thermosensitive reversible gels were obtained in the high-molecular-mass po ly(acrylonitrile)-propylene carbonate system using various temperature-time regimes:of phase separation. Study of the gel morphology showed that the s amples represent a highly-porous system with the pole size differing by mor e than two orders of magnitude, depending on the phase separation condition s; the minimum pore size is about 0.1 mm, Removal of the solvent results in the formation:of xerogels retaining the initial gel morphology; Xerogel sa mples having a minimum pore size exhibit the maximum deformability (draw ra tio up to lambda = 50-60). The corresponding highly-oriented samples posses s maximum values of the ultimate strength (0.7 GPa) and elastic modulus (19 GPa).