Macroporous Graphene Oxide–Polymer Composite Prepared through Pickering High Internal Phase Emulsions

Abstract

Macroporous polymer–graphene oxide (GO) composites were successfully prepared using Pickering high internal phase emulsion (HIPE) templates. GO flakes were modified by the cationic surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and used as the stabilizer of water-in-oil (W/O) Pickering emulsions. CTAB-modified GO is effective at stabilizing W/O Pickering HIPEs, and the lowest GO content is only about 0.2 mg mL^–1 (relative to the volume of the oil phase). The close-cell morphology of the resulting poly-Pickering HIPEs is observed, and the void size of the porous polymers is tuned by varying the concentration of GO. Three-dimensional macroporous chemically modified graphene (CMG) monoliths with a high specific surface area of about 490 m² g^–1 were obtained after removing the cellular polymer substrates through calcination. The micropores were also found in CMGs, which may be caused by the decomposition of CTAB adsorbed on the surface of GO