Fabrication of ionic liquid gel beads via sequential deposition

In this paper, we demonstrate the fabrication of gel beads composed of ionic liquid (IL) and polymer. The IL droplets are kept spherical during the deposition process by placement onto chromatography paper coated with fluoropolymer. The deposition process then occurs in two steps. In the first step, the monomer is absorbed into the IL droplet. In the second step, the initiator radicals are introduced. This sequential deposition process allows polymerization to primarily occur within the liquid droplet and therefore the beads are not attached to the underlying substrate and can be easily removed.