Stimuli-Responsive Polymers for Capturing and Separation Strategies

Over the last decade, stimuli-responsive polymers at surfaces have attracted considerable attention for a range of important applications. Such polymers can change their conformation and solubility, or even break or form covalent bonds, in response to changes in temperature, pH, light irradiation, or electrochemical stimuli. The presentation will focus on (porous) polymer materials, which contain at least one selectively addressable segment, either chemically or physically. Functional porous nanostructures obtained by block copolymer self-assembly, as well as recent advances in porous particle modification, will be highlighted and discussed with a focus on perfluorinated substances (PFAS) sorption capabilities and membrane fouling caused by nano-/microplastics. For instance, metallopolymer-containing porous materials revealed high adsorption and regeneration properties for PFAS. Analysis of the concentration dependence indicates multilayer adsorption beyond simple ion-pairing, best described by a Brunauer-Emmett-Teller mechanism. Depending on the polymer structure and the redox-active moieties, the reversible capturing strategy can be applied to other anions in a selective manner. The talk will also address the recycling of membranes and porous particles to form new functional materials for similar or different applications. The shown preparation strategies will pave the way for numerous applications in sensing, smart membranes, and column chromatography technologies, enabled by the tailored design of functional and smart polymers.