Preparation of porous polyester composites via emulsion templating: Investigation of the morphological, mechanical, and thermal properties

Open porous polyester composites were prepared by the crosslinking of unsaturated polyester resin and divinylbenzene in water-in-oil concentrated emulsion templates with the presence of a conventional surface modified montmorillonite nanoclay. Medium and high internal phase emulsions with either 55 or 80 wt% of internal phase were used as templates. The effect of monomer composition, emulsifier concentration, and internal phase amount on the emulsion stability and the morphology of the resulting porous composites were investigated. Moreover, the morphological properties of the resulting composites were determined depending on the amount of nanoclay loading. It was found that the morphological features, namely surface area and cell diameter, were altered dramatically with the amount of nanoclay loading. An important part of the research was focused on the variation of mechanical and thermal properties with the incorporation of nanoclay particles. The mechanical properties were improved both with the nanoclay incorporation and the use of medium internal phase emulsions. However, the used nanoclay did not have a significant effect on the thermal stability of the resulting composites. POLYM. COMPOS., 2014. © 2014 Society of Plastics Engineers