Monodisperse polymer beads as packing material for high-performance liquid chromatography: Fine control of pore structure of macroporous beads

A novel approach to monodispersed porous polymer beads allowing accurate control over a broad range of pore size distribution has been developed. It involves the use of monodispersed template particles which are used as polymeric porogens in the suspension polymerization of monomers such as styrene and divinylbenzene. The size uniformity of the template particles is retained by the final porous beads. The porous properties of the final beads are determined in large part by the characteristics of the porogenic mixture such as its composition, the molecular weight of the polymeric porogen, as well as the relative amount of monomers, polymeric and low molecular weight porogens used.