Hydrophilization of Porous Polystyrene-Based Continuous Rod Column

Reactive porous rods of poly[(chloromethyl)styrene-co-divinylbenzene] have been prepared for the first time by copolymerization of the monomers in the presence of a porogenic diluent. A two-step modification process involving reaction with ethylenediamine followed by reaction with gamma-gluconolactone leads to a porous medium that has highly hydrophilic surface functionalities. Preliminary chromatographic evaluation with both small molecules such as alkylbenzenes in reversed-phase mode and large proteins in hydrophobic adsorption and ion-exchange modes demonstrates that the surface of the modified rods possesses a hydrophilicity that is comparable to that of the best hydrophilic HPLC packings.