Earticle

This paper describes a method for the preparation of porous polymethylmethacrylate showing optical reflectivity from the porous silicon template. A porous polymethylmethacrylate showing optical reflectivity was prepared by replicating porous silicon template which was obtained by applying a computer-generated periodic square current density and resulted in a mirror with high reflectivity in a specific narrow spectral region. A porous polymethylmethacrylate showing an excellent reflectivity was successfully obtained by dissolving the Porous silicon template from the porous polymethylmethacrylate composite film. A porous polymethylmethacrylate exhibited a sharp reflection resonance in the reflectivity spectrum. Surface image of the porous polymethylmethacrylate indicated that the surface of the porous polymethylmethacrylate film had a porous structure. These porous polymethylmethacrylate films in aqueous solutions were stable for several days without any degradation.

This study was performed to develop environment-friendly porous polymer concrete utilizing recycled aggregates [RPPC] for permeable pavement of uniform quality with high permeability and flexural strength as well as excellent freezing and thawing resistance. The void ratios of RPPC are in the range of 15$\sim$$24\%$, showing the tendency that it is reduced to a great extent as the mixing ratio of the binder increases. The compressive and flexural strength of RPPC are in the range of 19$\sim$26 MPa and 6.2$\sim$7.4 MPa, respectively. Also, it shows a tendency to increase as the mixing ratio of the binder and filler increases. The permeability coefficients of RPPC are in the range of $6.3\times$$10_{-1}$$\sim$$1.5\times$$10_{-2}$cm/s. The flexural loads of RPPC are in the range of 18$\sim$32 KN. The weight reduction ratios obtained from the test for freezing and thawing resistance are in the range of 1.1$\sim$$2.4\%$ after 300 cycles of repeated freezing and thawing of the specimen for all mixes. The relative compressive strengths of RPPC after 300 cycles of freezing and thawing against the compressive strength before freezing and thawing test are in the range of 89$\sim$$96\%$.

Surface fog coating methods to porous pavements with a polymer, that contains MMA as a main ingredient, are being widely used in Japan and called 'Top-Coat Processes'. They have lots of effects such as to prevention of the pavement void choking, improvement of the water permeability of the pavements and so on. The purpose of this research is to show the characterization of the polymer to optimize the functions of the polymer fog-coat methods. This study focused on the difference of 'wetting' by water among polymers used for the fog coatings, and calculation the surface free energy from the water contact angle on each material. At the end, the water permeability test were conducted using porous asphalt mixtures that were coated with several kinds of polymers. The permeability was also measured on the specimens that were forcibly choked by muddy water and the resistance to choking was compared. It is concluded that the reduction of the surface free energy between water and a polymer improves the life of the permeability functions of porous pavements. Improvement of water permeation capacity and void-blocking controlling effects can be quantitatively evaluated using the interfacial tension ($\gamma$sl) with water for the coating material (high-viscosity asphalt and hardening resin binder). Consequently, the smaller the $\gamma$sl of the coating material the higher the water permeation capacity and void-blocking controlling effects of the porous asphalt pavements.

In this paper, a fundamental experiment regarding the formation of porous 3D structures for personal safety products using 3D PPP (Porous Polymer Printing) was introduced for the first time. The filament was manufactured by mixing PP (Polypropylene) and CBA (Chemical Blowing Agent) with polymer extruder, and the diameter of the filament was approximately 1.75mm. The proposed 3D PPP method, combined with the conventional FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) procedure, was influenced by process parameters, such as the nozzle temperature, printing speed and CBA density. In order to verify the best processing conditions, the depositing parameters were experimentally investigated for the porous polymer structure. These results provide parameters under which to form a multiple of 3D porous polymer structures, as well as various other 3D structures, and help to improve the mechanical shock absorption for personal safety products.

This study was carried out to develop a method of removing unnecessary sugars and high-molecular weight soluble components from water extract by using various highly porous polymer resins: these resins are widely used as adsorbents for polyphenolic compounds. Each anthocyanin-rich fraction (ARF) that was eluted from column packed with 4 different resins (SEPABEADS SP207, 700, 850 and Diaion HP 20) was obtained from an aqueous extract of the ripe fruits of Rubus coreanus, which is well-known in Korea as “Bok-bun-ja”. Among the above mentioned resins, Diaion HP20 had the highest efficacy and provided maximum yield of the ARF. The ARF eluted from the column packed with HP 20 exhibited the strongest antioxidant activity in vitro. Bioactive phytochemicals extracted from Rubus coreanus were investigated using the on-line HPLC-ABTS•+ system, and the resulting 6 peaks were identified as radical-scavenging components. By using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, 5 peaks were obtained, and these were identified as cyanidin-3-sambubioside, cyanidin-3-glucoside, cyanidin-3-xylosylrutinoside, cyanidin-3-rutinoside and pelargonidin-3-rutinoside. These results indicate that the use of appropriate porous resin (Diaion HP 20) leads to an increase in the yield of bioactive components and enhancement of their biological properties.

A facile and versatile route to prepare porous polymer microparticles with tunable pore size and density through the combination of phase separation and emulsion-solvent evaporation method is demonstrated. When volatile organic solvent (e.g., chloroform) diffuses through the aqueous phase containing poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and evaporates, n-hexadecane (HD) and polystyrene (PS) in oil-in-water emulsion droplets occur to phase separate due to the incompatibility between PS and HD, ultimately yielding microparticles with porous structures. Interestingly, density of the pores (pore number) on the shell of microparticles can be tailored from one to hundreds by simply varying the HD concentration and/or the rate of solvent evaporation. Moreover, this versatile approach for preparing porous microparticles with tunable pore size and density can be applied to other types of hydrophobic polymers, organic solvents, and alkanes, which will find potential applications in the fields of pharmaceutical, catalyst carrier, separation, and diagnostics.

Three kinds of porous polymer were synthesized using a solvothermal of tri-4,4'-diphenylmethane diisocyanate (MDI-trimer) and different diamino monomers. The effects of the synthesis conditions and the monomer selection on the synthesis of porous polymer properties were studied. The results show that the synthesis of $NH_2$-containing monomer molecules smaller the microporous polymers was easy to implement; the specific surface areas of the polymers are related to the monomer ratio and the reaction time. The results show that the synthesized porous polymer had good hydrogen storage performance; the hydrogen storage ability improved with the addition of heterocyclic nitrogen.

A polymer porous sheet, which can be applied to diverse wearable devices, has some advantages such as light-weight, high flexibility, high elongation, and so many others. In order to fabricate a porous sheet, water-soluble particles like sugar were utilized frequently, and there has been great advances. However, with our best knowledge, there are not enough reports on the mechanical behavior of porous sheets having different porosity. So, in this work, we tried to find out the relationship between porosity and mechanical deformation of a porous sheet. The process parameters such as a particle size, sheet thickness and PDMS mixing ratio with curing agent were analyzed on the effect of increasing the porosity of a sheet. Also, mechanical deformation of a sheet was tested using a tensile experiment. Through the experimental results, we make a conclusion that a highly porous sheet with thin thickness has high flexibility, and it deformed nearly double elongation comparing to worst one among nine cases.

Pure and stable YAG $(Y_3Al_5O_{12})$ powders were synthesized by a PVA (polyvinyl alcohol) polymer solution technique. PVA was used as an organic carrier for the precursor ceramic gel. The precursor gels were crystallized to YAG at relatively a low temperature of $900\;^{\circ}C$. The synthesized powders, which have nano-sized primary particles, were soft and porous, and the porous powders were ground to sub-micron size by a simple ball milling process. The ball-milled powders were densified to 94% relative density at $1500\;^{\circ}C$ for 1h. In this study, the characteristics of the synthesized YAG powders were examined.

In this investigation, synchrotron X-ray imaging was used to investigate the water distribution inside newly developed gas diffusion media in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells. In-situ radiography was used to reveal the relationship between the structure of the microporous layer (MPL) and the water flow in a newly developed MPL equipped with randomly arranged holes. A strong influence of these holes on the overall water transport was found. This contribution provides a brief overview to some of our recent activities on this research field.

Anion-exchange porous hollow-fiber membranes with a thickness of about 1.2 mm and a pore size of about $0.30{\mu}m$ were used as a supporting matrix to immobilize cycloisomaltooligosaccharide glucanotransferase (CITase). CITase was immobilized to the membrane via anion-exchange adsorption and by subsequent enzymatic cross-linking with transglutaminase, the amount of which ranged from 3 to 110 mg per g of the membrane. The degree of enzyme multilayer binding was equivalent to 0.3 to 9.8. Dextran, as the substrate, was converted into seven- to nine-glucose-membered cycloisomaltooligosaccharides (CI-7, -8, and -9) at a maxi mum yield of $28\%$ in weight at a space velocity of 10 per hour during the permeation of $2.0(w/w)\%$ dextran solution across the CITase-immobilized porous hollow-fiber membrane.

Two processing routes (i.e., the gel casting and polymer preform routes) using polymer beads were studied to fabricate porous ceramics with a cellular structure. The gel casting route, comprising the gel casting of a ceramic slurry mixed with polymer beads, was found to be inadequate to produce porous ceramic bodies with a interconnected pore structure, due to complete coating of the slurry on the polymer beads, which left just isolated pores in the final sintered bodies. The polymer preform route, involving the infiltration of a polymer beads preform with the ceramic slurry, successfully produced porous ceramics with a highly interconnected network of spherical pores. The pore size of 250-300 $\mu\textrm{m}$ was demonstrated and the porosity ranged from 82 to 86%. This process is advantageous to control the pore size because it is determined by the sizes of polymer beads used. Another feature is the avoidance of hollow skeleton, giving a high strength.

Block copolymers with well-defined nanoscopic structures have recently gained much attention for their potential uses as functional nanostructures. Here, we show that nanoporous templates made from polystyrene-block-poly (methyl methacrylate) (PS-b-PMMA) satisfy a novel design concept. At first, arrays of nanoscopic cylindrical microdomains oriented normal to the surface can easily be prepared. Then, we fabricated ultra high density arrays of conducting polymer as poly(pyrrole) (Ppy) and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) nanowires with diameters of $25{\sim}40\;nm$ on the ITO glass by electropolymerization of the monomers inside nanoholes. These high density arrays of conducting polymer nanowires could be used as P-type materials for photovoltaic devices.

Low-melting-temperature agarose gel solution, as a novel porogen was combined with a silk fibroin solution to generate interconnected porous networks. The porosity of the resultant silk fibroin-agarose scaffolds was greater than that of the scaffolds generated with agarose and deionized water. The porosities of silk fibroin scaffolds containing agarose gel at 0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5%, 2.0% [w/v] were 110.9%, 111.7%, 120.9%, and 123.0%, respectively. Lastly, the internal space generated in scaffolds after dissolution of the agarose gel provides a good environment for cell growth and movement within the scaffold.

A new characterization method using a porous plug model was proposed to determine the degree of sulfonation (DS) of ionomer binder with respect to the membrane used in membrane-electrode assemblies (MEAs) and to analyze the fraction of proton pathways through ionomer-catalyst combined electrodes in MEAs for polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs). Sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) was prepared to use a polymeric electrolyte and laboratory-made SPEEK solution (5wt.%, DMAc based) was added to catalyst slurry to form catalyst layers. In case of the SPEEK-based MEAs in this study, DS of ionomer binder for catalyst layers should be the same or higher than that of the SPEEK membrane used in the MEAs. The porous plug model suggested that most of protons were via the ionomer binder (${\sim}92.5%$) bridging the catalyst surface to the polymeric electrolyte, compared with the pathways through the alternative between the interstitial water on the surface of ionomer binder or catalyst and the ionomer binder (${\sim}7.3%$) and through only the interstitial water on the surface of ionomer or catalyst (${\sim}0.2%$) in the electrode of the MEA comprising of the sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) membrane and the 5wt.% SPEEK ionomer binder. As a result, it was believed that the majority of proton at both electrodeds moves through ionomer binder until reaching to electrolyte membrane. The porous plug model of the electrodes of MEAs reemphasized the importance of well-optimized structure of ionomer binder and catalyst for fuel cells.

초임계 이산화탄소를 이용하여 다공성 고분자 모노리스를 제조하는 실험적 연구를 행하여, 단량체의 종류와 중합반응 조건들이 생성되는 고분자 모노리스의 물성에 미치는 영향을 실험적으로 조사하였다. 중합반응은 반응이 진행되는 동안 반응물의 상변화를 관찰할 수 있도록 사파이어 창을 부착한 고압 반응기 내에서 진행되었으며, 단량체의 농도가 매우 낮은 경우를 제외하고는 반응기 내부형태와 동일한 형상의 건조하고 다공성인 고분자 모노리스를 얻었을 수 있었다. 생성되는 고분자 모노리스의 비 표면적은 반응혼합물 중의 단량체 농도와 중합반응 압력에 따라 증가하였으며, 기계적 강도는 경도 보강제 MMA를 첨가하여 증대시킬 수 있었다.

Experimental researches on the preparation of porous polymeric monoliths in supercritical carbon dioxide have been performed and the effects of monomer and polymerization parameters on the physical properties of the monolith prepared were examined. Polymerizations were carried out in the high pressure stainless steel reactor with sapphire window to show the phase change during the polymerization reaction, and continuous and dry porous monolithic polymer could be obtained. The specific surface area of monolithic polymer increased with monomer contents in reaction mixture and reaction pressure. The Rockwell hardness could be enhanced by the addition of co-monomer MMA in reaction mixtures.