Fabrication of a poly(vinyl alcohol) monolith via thermally impacted non-solvent-induced phase separation

Abstract

A monolith of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) was successfully prepared by thermally impacted non-solvent-induced phase separation without any templates. The morphology of the PVA monolith was observed by scanning electron microscopy. The pore and skeleton sizes could be controlled by changing the cooling temperature as well as the concentration and molecular weight of PVA. The nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms showed that the PVA monolith has a large surface area and uniform mesopore structure. Crosslinking using a glutaraldehyde (GA) agent produced a water-insoluble monolith. By changing the concentration of GA, a crosslinked monolith with various swelling ratios for water was obtained. © 2013 The Society of Polymer Science, Japan (SPSJ).