Versatile approach to nanoporous polymers with bicontinuous morphology using metal templated synthesis

Nanoporous materials with 3-D interconnected channels and large surface areas have been known to be technologically useful for a wide spectrum of applications, particularly in the fields energy storage conversion, supported catalysis separation technology. For first time, we herein report upon an original approach elaborate nanoporous polymers, especially thermosets, bicontinuous morphology. The versatility this strategy stems from possibility using gold (np-Au) as template replicate any polymeric material. Depending on solubility behavior polymer, infiltration solution used step pore filling is different, i.e. preformed polystyrene (PS) or pure liquid dicyanate monomers followed by in-situ polymerization case thermosetting polycyanurate (PCN). After selective quantitative dissolution np-Au KI/I2 solution, resulting np-PS np-PCN, respectively, takes inverse morphology np-Au, evidenced SEM Fourier transform analysis. Both np-PCN frameworks present well-defined nanostructures homogeneous size distribution over entire volume processed samples. This new pathway very promising not only because its terms polymer diversity but also precisely tuning nanostructure polymers.