Preparation and Properties of Porous Poly (vinyl alcohol) Gel Beads for High Performance Gel Chromatographic Packings

Abstract

Composite beads were synthesized by suspending dichloromethane solution of poly(vinyl alcohol) ester and cellulose ester mixture in aqueous solution of poly(vinyl alcohol) and evaporating the solvent. Then porous poly(viny alcohol) gel beads were prepared from the composite beads by saponification, crosslinking with epichlorohydrin and the subsequent removal of cellulose. In order to change the state of phase separation of two components in the beads, kinds of poly(vinyl alcohol) esters and cellulose esters, and ratio of components were varied. The degree of bulkiness, capacity ratio and molecular weight at exclusion limit increased remarkably by the removal of cellulose from composite gels. Molecular weight at exclusion limit of poly(vinyl alcohol) gels prepared from poly(vinyl acetate)/ cellulose acetate butyrate or poly(vinyl propionate)/cellulose acetate butyrate composite systems were up to 2 x105 in molecular weight of poly(ethylene oxide).
Molecular weight at exclusion limit of poly(vinyl alcohol) gels prepared from other composite systems were lower than those prepared by the above mentioned procedure. Consequently, the porous poly(vinyl alcohol) gels were found to be useful as hydrophilic packing materials for high performance gel chromatography.