Porous polymer structures and methods and articles relating thereto
AssigneeUniversity of Southern California
InventorsMalancha Gupta, Scott J. Seidel, Philip J. Kwong
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A porous polymer structure may be formed by cooling a substrate to a temperature at or below a freezing point of a monomer, wherein the monomer is capable of free-radical polymerization; exposing the substrate to an initiator and the monomer, each in a vapor phase, wherein a concentration of the monomer in the vapor phase is above a saturation pressure of the monomer; converting the initiator to a free radical; crystalizing and depositing the monomer on the substrate; and polymerizing at least some of the monomer on the substrate, thereby forming a porous polymer structure on the substrate.
Claims20
A method comprising:
- cooling a substrate to a temperature at or below a freezing point of a monomer, wherein the monomer is capable of free-radical polymerization;
- exposing the substrate to an initiator and the monomer, each in a vapor phase, wherein a concentration of the monomer in the vapor phase is above a saturation pressure of the monomer;
- converting the initiator to a free radical;
- crystalizing and depositing the monomer on the substrate;
- and
- polymerizing at least some of the monomer on the substrate, thereby forming a porous polymer structure on the substrate.
A method comprising:
- cooling a substrate to a temperature at or below a freezing point of a first monomer, wherein the first monomer is capable of free-radical polymerization;
- exposing the substrate to a first initiator and the first monomer, each in a vapor phase, wherein a concentration of the first monomer in the vapor phase is above a saturation pressure of the first monomer;
- converting the first initiator to a first free radical;
- crystalizing and depositing the first monomer on the substrate;
- polymerizing at least some of the first monomer on the substrate, thereby forming a porous polymer structure on the substrate;
- cooling the porous polymer structure to a temperature at or below a freezing point of a second monomer, wherein the second monomer is capable of free-radical polymerization;
- exposing the porous polymer structure to a second initiator and the second monomer, each in the vapor phase, wherein a concentration of the second monomer in the vapor phase is above a saturation pressure of the second monomer;
- depositing the second monomer as on the porous polymer structure;
- polymerizing at least some of the second monomer on the porous polymer structure, thereby producing the porous polymer structure with a first layer comprising a polymer of the first monomer and a second layer comprising a polymer of the second monomer.
An article comprising:
- a porous polymer structure that comprises microstructures that comprise a polymer, wherein the polymer is a polymerization product of reactants that comprise a free radical and a monomer;
- and
- wherein the porous polymer structure has two types of pores:
- (1) intracrystalline pores within the microstructures;
- and (2) intercrystalline pores between the microstructures, wherein a pore size of at least some of the intracrystalline pores is about 10 nm to about 10 microns, and wherein a pore size of at least some of the intercrystalline pores is about 1 micron to about 500 microns.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.