by Idemitsu Kosan
Co., Ltd. It is 98% syndiotactic with an Mw of 152 000, and an Mw/Mn of 1.9. SPS was dissolved with a solvent in
a screw tube by heating the mixture at high temperature after influx
of dry nitrogen gas for 1 min. The solvents used included chloroform,
Py, toluene, THF (Wako Co.), piperidine, and pyrrolidine (Sigma-Aldrich).
The ILs used were 1-butylpyridinium bromide ([C4py]Br)
(Sigma-Aldrich, Tokyo Kasei), 1-butyl-4-methylpyridinium tetrafluoroborate
(Sigma-Aldrich), and 1-butylpyridinium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide
(Tokyo Kasei). All of the ILs and solvents were used without purification.
The heating temperature of a sample was sometimes higher than the
boiling temperature of the solvent by 10–20 °C. In the
case of SPS/Py gels and SPS/pyrrolidine gels with 5–10 wt %
SPS, the heating temperatures were 130–140 and 120–130
°C, respectively. After SPS was perfectly dissolved, the solutions
were well stirred by using a vortex mixer, heated again for 2 min,
and finally cooled at room temperature (around 25 °C) for 1 day.