One-step synthesis of manganese dioxide/polystyrene nanocomposite foams via high internal phase emulsion and study of their catalytic activity

This paper is devoted to the preparation of manganese dioxide/polystyrene nanocomposite foams via a novel and facile one-step method using high internal phase emulsion as templates. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and thermogravimetric analyses (TGA) techniques were used to characterize the resulting composites. SEM measurements revealed the porous network structure, the average pore diameters ranged from 3.8 to 30.4 μm. The presence of manganese dioxide was identified by XPS pattern, XRD, pattern and FT-IR spectra of the resulting composites. The TGA thermograms showed that the maximum content of manganese dioxide in the nanocomposite foams reached about 15.5%. The applications of the nanocomposite in the oxidative degradation of methylene blue exhibited good catalytic activity in the presence of H₂O₂ as an oxidant.