Polypropylene Fibre Grafted Styrene-divinylbenzene Copolymers Post-cross-linked with Cyanuric Chloride

Apreparation method for a permanently porous functionalized post-cross-linked polymer fibre is developed by chemical transformation of polypropylene fibre grafted styrene-divinylbenzene. The fibre post-cross-linking method involved the preparation of rigid three-dimensional networks in the entire polymer fibre and changing its specific surface area. As a cross-linker, cyanuric chloride was used in presence of a Friedel-Crafts catalyst. The effects of several important factors, e.g., reaction temperature, reaction time, catalyst type, and material ratio on Friedel-Crafts reaction were investigated in detail and the optimal synthetic conditions of postcross- linked polymer fibre were obtained. Under optimal synthetic condition, the specific surface area of the post-cross-linked polymer fibre could be 58.16 m2/g, over 900 times the initial polymer fibre. Compared with the initial fibre, the post-cross-linked polymer fibre shows high specific surface area, large pore volume, abundant pore structure, and excellent adsorption property for organic vapours, as well. The experimental results showed that the adsorption capacity for organic vapours(methanol, benzene, and toluene) on the post-cross-linked polymer fibre was increasedto about 3 times of that of the initial fibre. The adsorption capacity was related not onlyto the size of the pore network but also to the molecular size of organic vapours. Thepost-cross-linked polymer fibre has larger adsorption capacity for benzene than for theother organic vapours studied.