Mesoporous Polymeric Materials Tailored from Oligoester-Derivatized Interpenetrating Polymer Networks

The utilization of semi-hydrolyzable oligoester-derivatized Interpenetrating Polymer Networks (IPNs) as nanostructured precursors provides a straightforward and effective route to novel (meso)porous networks. In a first stage, different types of poly(D,L-lactide)/poly(methyl methacrylate)-based IPNs were synthesized by resorting to the so-called in situ sequential method. In a second stage, the quantitative hydrolysis of the polyester sub-network afforded porous structures with pore sizes ranging from 10 to 100 nm. The potentialities offered by this versatile approach were discussed, and the porosity of the resulting methacrylic networks was examined by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and thermoporometry using Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC).