Nickel incorporation into a hollow fibre microporous polymer: a preparation route for novel high surface area nickel structures

The incorporation of Ni metal into PolyHIPE (a generic hollow fibre polymer produced by emulsion polymerisation) was attempted by both electroless deposition and electrodeposition and the resulting composites were characterised by a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Energy Dispersive Analysis by X-ray (EDAX) analysis. The first method produced a conducting outer surface coating which did not penetrate significantly into the interior of the polymer. Electroplating succeeded in growing Ni through the polymer cells and pores. Subsequent burning out of the polymer matrix resulted in a granular interconnected Ni structure with a specific surface area of 49.5 m(2) g(-1), suggesting that Ni coatings produced by this method could be an alternative to Raney-nickel coated electrodes. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.