Photocured Siloxane‐Containing Emulsion‐Templated Porous Polymer Materials With Exceptional Mechanical Resilience

The preparation of siloxane‐containing emulsion‐templated porous polymers via thiol‐ene chemistry is explored. Emulsion templating, a technique that utilizes a liquid‐liquid system separated into two or more phases, was exploited to produce monolithic materials with controlled morphologies from 1,3‐divinyltetramethyldisiloxane (DVTMDS) and trimethylolpropane tris(3‐mercaptopropionate) (TMTMP). Emulsions were prepared using varying ratios of dichloroethane and chloroform, then cured photochemically to deliver flexible emulsion‐templated porous polymers. The differences in polarity and density influenced emulsion stability and, in turn, the void and pore sizes (and the respective distributions) of the resulting materials as ascertained by SEM analysis. The mechanical properties of the resulting materials were tested under cyclic compression for up to 100 cycles and limited changes in hysteresis were observed. Using a ratio of 25:75 DCE:CHCl 3 appears optimal in the preparation of DVTMDS/TMPTMP based emulsion‐templated porous polymers; samples prepared using this ratio had the largest mean interconnecting pore sizes by SEM, and showed both the least damage and most consistent hysteresis from compression testing. This sample was taken further to 5000 compression cycles, after which exceptional mechanical performance was maintained demonstrating the outstanding properties of these porous siloxane‐containing materials.