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Phenomena affecting morphology of microporous poly(acrylonitrile) prepared via phase separation from solution
Microporous polymers are useful for applications as diverse as separation membranes and physical supports for chemically active species. One of the most important preparation methods employs thermal demixing of solution. Differences in the morphology of thermally demixed 2 wt% solutions of PAN in maleic anhydride cannot be explained by existing models, which are based on phase diagrams. An explanation based on degradation of the polymer is not supported by GPC, NMR, or FTIR experiments. We speculate that the physical structure of the polymer in solution, involving either intramolecular dimensions or intermolecular aggregation, has an important effect on the morphology.