PolyHIPEs for Separations and Chemical Transformations: A Review

Polymeric foams prepared from polymerizing high internal-phase emulsions (polyHIPEs) provide several distinct advantages over conventional polymer resins for applications in separations as well as chemical transformations, most notably reliance on convective rather than diffusive mass transport. Elimination of the slow diffusion through pores of a typical macroporous resin bead allows for higher throughputs to be achieved using polyHIPE resins. This review will discuss recent examples of polyHIPE materials used in separations applications (metal complexation, ion-exchange, protein purification, chromatography, and oil/water separation) as well as supports for various catalysts (small molecules, nanoparticles, and enzymes) for chemical-transformation applications.