A continuous method to prepare porous polystyrene membranes with high adsorption ability for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

A convenient and continuous method to prepare porous polystyrene (PS) membranes via a microlayer coextrusion and template method is proposed. The porous PS membranes can be obtained via the acid etching of a CaCO 3 template embedded in the membranes. Scanning electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy of the porous PS membranes show that most of the CaCO 3 particles can be etched away. The effects of etching time, CaCO 3 content, and membrane thickness on the porous structures are investigated, which can be used to regulate and control the porous structure. To demonstrate the adsorption performance of porous PS membranes on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, pyrene is used as the model compound. Compared with that of solid PS membranes, porous PS membranes exhibit much higher adsorption performance for trace pyrene. The adsorption kinetics and isotherm of porous PS membranes can be well fit by pseudo-second-order kinetics and a Freundlich isotherm model. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018 , 135 , 45917.