POROUS MONODISPERSE POLY(DIVINYLBENZENE) MICROSPHERES BY PRECIPITATION POLYMERIZATION

The precipitation polymerization of commercial divinylbenzene in aceto nitrile containing up to 40 vol. % toluene or other cosolvents is show n to produce novel porous monodisperse poly(divinylbenzene)microsphere s. These microspheres have diameters between 4 and 7 mu m, total pore volumes of up to 0.52 cm(3)/g, and surface areas of up to 800 m(2)/g. As no surfactant nor stabilizer was used in the preparation of these p articles, their surfaces are free of any such residues. The particles were slurry-packed into stainless steel columns for size exclusion chr omatography evaluation, and the results show an exclusion limit at mol ecular weights of 500 g/mol. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.