| Abstract: | Particles of methyl methacrylate (MMA) and glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) copolymer having narrow size distributions were prepared by the method of dispersion polymerization. Results from the analysis of particle porosity and the correlation of specific surface area with the reciprocal of particle diameter suggest that the prepared particles were nonporous. The particle size was found to decrease from 4.2 to 2.1 μm with increasing the mass ratio of GMA/MMA from 0.1 to 0.75. Polymer particles having an average diameter falling in this range are suitable for being employed as the stationary phase in protein chromatography. The decrease in particle size when GMA was present could be due to the increase in adsorption rate of poly(vinyl pyrrolidone). The oligomer chains that were rich in GMA were more active for adsorbing and grafting PVP, compared with the moiety of MMA. An increase in the GMA/MMA ratio also leaded to a decrease in epoxy‐group density on the particle surface, since the reactivity of GMA was greater than that of MMA. Results of this work suggest that the influence of GMA/MMA mass ratio on the particle size and surface functionality of the nonporous particles was very significant. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 37: 1457–1463, 1999 |
