| Abstract: | Compounds having acid anhydride moiety have been used for starting materials for many useful derivatives. Spherical crosslinked polymer beads of porous maleic anhydride–styrene–divinylbenzene copolymer are obtained by suspension polymerization. Glycerol is found to be a preferable dispersant to make spherical beads. The beads contained 93% of the anhydride and 7% of the free carboxyls. As one of applications, the beads were hydrolyzed or reacted with anhydrous hydrazine, and the metal sorption behavior of them was examined. The hydrolyzed beads show a similar sorption manner as a conventional cation exchange resin having carboxylic acid groups, but the hydrazide beads sorbed mercury (II) selectively over a wide pH range. This investigation suggests a simple preparative method for the insoluble spherical porous beads of the maleic anhydride copolymer. |
