On the structure of macroreticular styrene‐divinylbenzene copolymers

The influence of the removal of various diluents, pore forming agents from the porous styrene‐ethylstyrene‐acrylonitrile‐divinylbenzene copolymers on the structure of the matrix was investigated by several methods. The most advantageous pathway to preserve the initial structural edifice of the porous networks performed in the presence of solvating diluents consisted in the removal of the inert media with methanol as it was noticed from the experimental data. If the steam treatment is applied, the collapse effect takes place and the anion exchangers prepared from such matrices exchange/adsorb less dye stuff by comparison with ones formed from beads treated with methanol, because the pore size was changed. It was also noticed that the porous copolymers performed in the presence of the solvating diluents (mixtures of solvatings and precipitants) swell very well in methanol though it is a precipitating medium for the polystyrenic macromolecular chains.