Browsing by Author "Dabrowski, Miriam Lucia"

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Open Access
Formulation and polymerization of foamed 1,4-BDDMA-in-water emulsions
(2020) Dabrowski, Miriam Lucia; Hamann, Martin; Stubenrauch, Cosima
Emulsion and foam templating allow the synthesis of tailor-made polymer foams. A complementary templating route is foamed emulsion templating. The concept is based on the generation of a monomer-in-water emulsion which is subsequently foamed. After polymerization of the foamed emulsion, one obtains open-cell polymer foams with porous pore walls. In the paper at hand, we generated foamed emulsions and synthesized polymer foams which are based on the monomer 1,4-butanediol dimethacrylate (1,4-BDDMA). The main challenge was to find the optimal composition of the emulsion by varying the components systematically. We will discuss that the composition of the monomer-in-water emulsion is key for the stability of the foamed emulsion and thus for the structure of the resulting polymer foam. The final composition of the continuous phase was found to be 65 vol% 1,4-BDDMA, 30 vol% water and 5 vol% glycerol. We foamed and polymerized this emulsion to check the foamed emulsion's suitability as a template for solid polymer foams. We generated a foamed emulsion with a mean bubble diameter of 151 mm 90 mm and obtained a highly porous poly(1,4-BDDMA) foam with a pore mean diameter of 366 mm 91 mm. Furthermore, the polymer foam has a “sub-porosity” within the pore walls.
Open Access
Methacrylate‐based polymer foams with controllable pore sizes and controllable polydispersities via foamed emulsion templating
(2020) Dabrowski, Miriam Lucia; Stubenrauch, Cosima
This study reports on a novel templating route, which uses foamed emulsions as templates for porous polymers. The concept is based on the generation of a monomer‐in‐water emulsion, which is subsequently foamed via microfluidics. The monomer of choice is 1,4‐butanediol dimethacrylate (1,4‐BDDMA). After polymerization of the foamed emulsion, one obtains open‐cell polymer foams with porous pore walls. Foamed emulsions and polymer foams are generated. It is shown that foamed emulsion templating in combination with microfluidics is well‐suited to synthesize 1) monodisperse poly(1,4‐BBDMA) foams with controllable pore sizes and 2) their polydisperse counterparts with controllable polydispersities. Monodisperse templates with different bubble sizes and thus polymer foams with different pore sizes ranging from about 100-400 μm in diameter are synthesized. Microfluidics is also used for the generation of polydisperse poly(1,4‐BDDMA) foams with polydispersities between 18% and 27% but the same mean pore sizes as the monodisperse ones, i.e., we have access to polymer foams that only differ in their polydispersity.
Open Access
Tailor-made methacrylate-based polymer foams via emulsion and foamed emulsion templating
(2020) Dabrowski, Miriam Lucia; Stubenrauch, Cosima (Prof. Dr.)
Inspired by studies on tissue engineering, this PhD thesis aims at synthesizing and characterizing methacrylate-based polymer foams with tunable pore structures. To reach this goal, two templating routes, namely emulsion templating and foamed emulsion templating, were combined with microfluidics. Two different templating routes were chosen to get access to different pore sizes without changing the monomer. The monomer used was 1,4-butanediol dimethacrylate (1,4-BDDMA). The liquid templates and the solid polymer foams were characterized via light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to prove the “templating effect”.