Kraft Black Liquor as a Carbonaceous Source for the Generation of Porous Monolithic Materials and Applications toward Hydrogen Adsorption and Ultrastable Supercapacitors

High internal phase emulsions (HIPEs) have templated self-standing porous carbonaceous materials (carboHIPEs) while employing Kraft Black Liquor, a paper milling industry byproduct, as a carbon precursor source. As such, the starting emulsion has been prepared through a laboratory-made homogenizer, while native materials have been characterized at various length scales either with Raman spectrometry, X-ray diffraction (XRD), mercury intrusion porosimetry, and nitrogen absorption. After thermal carbonization, specific surface areas ranging from ∼600 m2 g-1 to 1500 m2 g-1 have been reached while maintaining a monolithic character. Despite a poor graphitization yield, the carbonaceous materials offer good electronic transport properties, reaching 31 S m-1. When tested toward energy storage applications, the native unwashed materials revealed a hydrogen storage of 0.07 wt % at 40 bar and room temperature (RT), while hydrogen retention is reaching 0.37 wt % at 40 bar and RT for the washed sample. When employed as supercapacitor electrodes, these carbonaceous foams are able to deliver high capacities of ∼140 F/g at 1 A/g, thereby matching the ones obtained from a commercial carbon reference, while additionally providing a restored remnant capacity of 120 F/g at 2 A/g over 5000 cycle numbers.

Emulsion templated scaffolds of poly(ε-caprolactone) - a review

The role of poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) and its 3D scaffolds in tissue engineering has already been established due to its ease of processing into long-term degradable implants and approval from the FDA. This review presents the role of high internal phase emulsion (HIPE) templating in the fabrication of PCL scaffolds, and the versatility of the technique along with challenges associated with it. Considering the huge potential of HIPE templating, which so far has mainly been focused on free radical polymerization of aqueous HIPEs, we provide a summary of how the technique has been expanded to non-aqueous HIPEs and other modes of polymerization such as ring-opening. The scope of coupling of HIPE templating with some of the advanced fabrication methods such as 3D printing or electrospinning is also explored.

Synthesis of Biodegradable Macroporous Poly(l-lactide)/Poly(ε-caprolactone) Blend Using Oil-in-Eutectic-Mixture High-Internal-Phase Emulsions as Template

We have demonstrated that l-lactide (LLA) forms a eutectic mixture with ε-caprolactone (CL) in a 30:70 mol ratio with a melting point of -19 °C. Taking advantage of the liquid nature and polarity at the LLA-CL eutectic mixture, we have formulated oil-in-eutectic-mixture high-internal-phase emulsions (HIPEs) by stepwise addition of the oil phase (tetradecane) into the continuous phase (mixture of surfactant and LLA-CL eutectic mixture) at room temperature and under stirring. The oil-in-LLA-CL-eutectic-mixture HIPEs were polymerized in the presence of both the organocatalysts 1,8-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene (DBU) and methanesulfonic acid (MSA) and the initiator benzyl alcohol (BnOH) at 37 °C and without the addition of any extra reagent or solvent in one single pot. The catalytic selectivities of DBU and MSA for the ring-opening polymerizations of LLA and CL, respectively, allowed the synthesis of macroporous poly(l-lactide)/poly(ε-caprolactone) blend materials. The resulting materials exhibited a macroporous morphology that resembled that of the HIPE internal-phase droplets used as templates. These materials proved effective as oil absorbents for oil/water separation with not only a noticeable performance, similar to that of conventional sorbents in terms of both selectivity and recyclability, but also unprecedented safe disposability, certainly of interest for applications in the cleanup of industrial oily wastewaters and oil spills, thanks to the biodegradable features of both poly(ε-caprolactone) and poly(l-lactide).

S, J. F. A. SM, Q. W, J. A. P, J. D. MM. On the stability and chemorheology of a urea choline chloride deep-eutectic solvent as an internal phase in acrylic high internal phase emulsions

This study presents the first detailed investigation on the DES-non ionic surfactant HIPE systems.

Porous monoliths synthesized via polymerization of styrene and divinyl benzene in nonaqueous deep-eutectic solvent-based HIPEs

Due to their viscosity and polarity, DESs represent a suitable internal phase for HIPEs containing styrenic monomers in addition to acrylates, thus expanding on the range of monomers forming polymerizable DES-based HIPEs.

Making non-aqueous high internal phase pickering emulsions: influence of added polymer and selective drying

We report the first example of a non-aqueous (oil-in-oil) Pickering high internal phase emulsion (HIPE) stabilized by chemically modified fumed silica. In this case, a 75 vol % ethylene carbonate (EC)-rich internal phase is emulsified in 25 vol % p-xylene (xylene)-rich continuous phase using interfacial nanoparticles. It is revealed that no phase inversion takes place during the HIPE formation process when using the appropriate wettability of solid particles. Incorporating polystyrene (PS) into xylene enables one-step formation of PS-filled HIPEs in place of a multi-step polymerization of the continuous phase. We observe that the size of droplets changes with the addition of PS, and we associate this with the change in the viscosity of the continuous xylene-rich phase. Drying the pure HIPE results in the selective removal of xylene and coalescence of EC-rich droplets. With the PS in the xylene-rich continuous phase, we show that EC-rich droplets can be retained even though the xylene is evaporated off, and a new semi-solid composite containing both liquid phase and solid phase is formed via this non-aqueous Pickering-HIPE template.

Deep-eutectic solvents as a support in the nonaqueous synthesis of macroporous poly(HIPEs)

Polymerizations of nonaqueous HIPEs with (meth)acrylic monomers as continuous phase and DES as internal phase produce macroporous interconnected polymer monoliths.