Abstract
Porous materials are used in many important applications, such as separation technologies, catalysis, and chromatography. They may be obtained from various monomers via diverse polymerization techniques and a wide range of synthesis parameters. The study is devoted to the synthesis and characterization of crosslinked porous polymeric spheres containing pyrrolidone subunits. To achieve this goal, two methods were applied: direct synthesis from N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone (NVP) with ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) and via a modification reaction of porous poly(glycidyl methacrylate-co-ethylene glycol dimethacrylate) with pyrrolidone (P). The polymerization was carried out with the use of different molar ratios of the monomers. In order to obtain highly porous materials, pore-forming diluents (toluene, dodecane, and dodecan-1-ol) were used. The synthesized copolymers were characterized using size distribution analysis, ATR-FTIR spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, thermogravimetry, and inverse gas chromatography. Determined by the nitrogen adsorption/desorption method, the specific surface area was in the range of 55-468 m(2)/g. The good thermal properties of the poly(VP-co-EGDMA) copolymers allowed them to be applied as the stationary phase in gas chromatography.