Macroporous polystyrene microsphere/graphene oxide(PS/GO) composite monolith was first prepared using Pickering emulsion droplets as the soft template. The Pickering emulsion was stabilized by PS/GO composite particles in-situ formed in an acidic water phase. With the evaporation of water and the oil phase(octane), the Pickering emulsion droplets agglomerated and combined with each other, forming a three-dimensional macroporous PS/GO composite matrix with excellent mechanical strength. The size of the macrospores ranged from 4 mm to 20 mm. The macroporous PS/GO composite monolith exhibited high adsorption capacity for tetracycline(TC) in an aqueous solution at p H 4–6. The maximum adsorption capacity reached 197.9 mg g 1at p H 6. The adsorption behaviour of TC fitted well with the Langmuir model and pseudo-second-order kinetic model. This work offers a simple and efficient approach to fabricate macroporous GO-based monolith with high strength and adsorption ability for organic pollutants.
The fabrication of raspberry-like poly(ethylene terephthalate)/polyacrylonitrile(PET/PAN) microspheres by g-ray radiation-induced polymerization of acrylonitrile on micron-sized PET microspheres were first reported in this work. A PET emulsion was firstly prepared by dispersing a PET solution with 1,1,2,2-tetrachloroethane/phenol mixture as the solvent into an aqueous solution of sodium dodecyl sulfate.Then, PET microspheres were formed by precipitating the PET emulsion droplets from ethanol. The influence of the PET solvent and the weight ratio of ethanol to PET emulsion on the morphology of the PET microspheres had been investigated. After the surface of the prepared PET microspheres was grafted with poly(acrylic acid), the grafting polymerization of AN also had been successfully initiated by g-ray radiation to form PAN microspheres with a size of about 100 nm on the PET microspheres. This work provides a new method to fabricate micron-sized PET microspheres, and further expands the functionalization of PET and its application fields.
Yong-Fei XuMo-Zhen WangQi-Chao WuXiao ZhouXue-Wu Ge