Abstract
Polymerization-induced spinodal decomposition was conducted in glycolic solutions of phloroglucinol/formaldehyde (PF) copolymer and poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(propylene oxide)-poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO-PPO-PEO) to synthesize bicontinuous macroporous morphologies with micro-domains from 0.5 to 6 microns. The polymeric materials were further carbonized at elevated temperature to yield bimodal meso/macroporous carbon monoliths after the thermal decomposition of the PEO-PPO-PEO template. The bimodal porous nature of the resultant carbon monoliths resulted from the dual phase separation, in which spinodal decomposition and microphase separation occurred simultaneously. We demonstrated the tunability of macropores without alteration of mesopore sizes.
