Nanoporous polymeric materials: A new class of materials with enhanced properties

Abstract

Nanoporous polymeric materials are porous materials with pore sizes in the nanometer range (i.e., below 200 nm), processed as bulk or film materials, and from a wide set of polymers. Over the last several years, research and development on these novel materials have progressed significantly, because it is believed that the reduction of the pore size to the nanometer range could strongly influence some of the properties of porous polymers, providing unexpected and improved properties compared to conventional porous and microporous polymers and non-porous solids. In this review, the key properties of these nanoporous polymeric materials (mechanical, thermal, dielectric, optical, filtration, sensing, etc.) are analyzed. The experimental and theoretical results obtained up to date related to the structure–property relations are presented. In several sections, in order to present a more compressive approach, the trends obtained for nanoporous polymers are compared to those for metallic and ceramic nanoporous systems. Moreover, some specific characteristics of these materials, such as the consequences of the confinement of both gas and solid phases, are described. Likewise, the main production methods are briefly described. Finally, some of the potential applications of these materials are also discussed in this paper.