Study on structure-properties correlation of polymers of intrinsic microporosity

• Grant number: 12/07805-1
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: October 01, 2012
• End date: June 30, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Materials and Metallurgical Engineering - Nonmetallic Materials
• Principal Investigator: Caio Marcio Paranhos da Silva
• Grantee: Caio Marcio Paranhos da Silva
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Exatas e de Tecnologia (CCET). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Luiz Antonio Pessan

Abstract

Microporous polymeric materials have received great attention in the last years, potentially for use in the areas of gas storage, molecular separation and catalysts. Although several papers have previously reported the preparation and characterization of a wide variety of polymers of intrinsic microporosity (PIM's), studies on structure-properties correlation of these systems are very limited yet. Besides, preparation of these materials still shows high cost of the monomers and very difficult processing to develop membranes. The aim of this research proposal is to investigate the influence of molecular architecture on the porosity aspects in great detail from a new alternative and cheapest synthetic route. The impact of intermolecular interactions and the polymer backbone architecture (monomer length, stiffness and kink angle) will be evaluate as a function of the average size and size distribution of obtained porous. PIM's will be synthesized from functional monomers via interfacial polymerization technique and the reaction conditions (monomers content, reaction time, temperature, drying/storage conditions and thermal treatments) will be analyzed. Potential application of these systems will be evaluated in terms of CO2 and organic vapors capture capacity. From the obtained results, it is expected to select tunable systems with improved structure-properties balance for environmental-friendly and higher added value applications. (AU)

Filed patent(s) as a result of this research project