Template-assisted hydrophobic porous silica membrane: A purifier sieve for organic solvents.

ABSTRACT Self-supporting, interconnected, porous inorganic (silicon/carbon) membranes were obtained by the calcination of composite membranes at 900 °C with a porous polymer template obtained by binary-phase solid-state photopolymerization at −60 °C with acrylate monomers followed by chemical vapor deposition. The physicochemical properties of all of the membranes were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and the measurement of water contact angles, water uptake, and percentage of porosity. The membranes showed contact angles ranging from 127 to 130 ± 0.5°, which were close to those of superhydrophobicity. The EDS, FTIR spectroscopy, XRD, and TGA results confirmed the formation of the Si-C composite structure after calcination and an increase in the thermal stability. The polymer and composite membranes were found to be hydrophilic, whereas Si-C was hydrophobic. The poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate derived Si-C membrane showed a good absorption efficiency for tinted toluene from water compared to the others. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018, 135, 45822. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]