Patent Awarded for Surface Grafted High Internal Phase Emulsion Foams for Chemical Separations

AIKEN, S.C (September 2, 2025) — Savannah River National Laboratory recently received a U.S. patent for its Surface Grafted High Internal Phase Emulsion Foams for Chemical Separations.

Polymeric resin beads are commonly used for a variety of separations including actinide, radionuclide and organic molecule separations. However, the physical characteristics of these beads cause the separations processes to lack efficiency and require large volumes of solvent to complete. Though decreasing bead size can alleviate some of these challenges, the reduced size causes increased pressure drops, lowering throughput rates.

SRNL scientists in collaboration with researchers at the University of South Carolina developed a method for forming material that improves efficiency in separations through the use of a high internal phase emulsion polymerization.  This method forms a mechanically strong foam that can be further functionalized to achieve various separations.  By tuning the functionalization, the material can be used in separations of radioactive species, metals, organic chemical species and other components of chemical process streams and clean-up operations.

The material was demonstrated to be more efficient in a plutonium purification application when compared to the standard resin bead used for this process.  The polymeric foam material exceeded the standard resin bead in terms of both volumetric and gravimetric capacity.