Supercritical CO2–ionic liquids: Green combination for preparing foams

• Synthesis of new fluorinated ionic liquids.
• Use of ionic liquids as additives for porous materials.
• Green process for preparing foams.

A simple and scalable process was developed to prepare microcellular polystyrene–ionic liquid foams. The morphology and the physical properties of PS–IL foams were tuned as a function the chemical nature of cations varying from pyridinium, imidazolium to phosphonium and the functionalization either CO2-phobic with an alkyl ligand or CO2-philic with a perfluorinated one. Fluorinated ionic liquids (CO2-philic) are the relevant surfactants to decrease by half the cell size.

Microcellular foams prepared with new fluorinated ionic liquids.Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide