Functional hydrophilic polystyrene beads with uniformly size and high cross-linking degree facilitated rapid separation of exenatide

•Uniformly sized and highly cross-linked polystyrene (PSt) beads were prepared by membrane emulsion polymerization.•Residual surface vinyl groups were conversed to epoxy groups followed quaternization.•Aromatic ring matrix was decorated including nitration, reduction and attachment of glycidyltrimethylammonium chloride.•Synthetic PSt-based anion-exchange microspheres were used in chromatographic evaluation of peptides separation.

A high cross-linking polystyrene(PSt)-based anion-exchange material with uniformly size, high ion exchange capacity, and high hydrophilicity was synthesized by a novel surface functionalization approach in this study. Uniformly sized PSt microspheres were prepared by the membrane emulsion polymerization strategy, and then modified by (1) conversing resid ual surface vinyl groups to epoxy groups followed by quaternization, and (2) decorating aromatic ring matrix including nitration, reduction and attachment of glycidyltrimethylammonium chloride. The 3-D morphology and porous features of microspheres were observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The surface of the modified PSt became roughness but the particle size remained same. Meanwhile, FT-IR spectra and laser scanning confocal microscope (LCSM) indicated that the modification groups had been successfully covalently coated onto the PSt microspheres. Modified PSt microspheres showed greatly improved hydrophilicity and biocompatibility with 0.387 mmol/mL ion exchange capacity (IEC). In the application evaluation procedure, exenatide can be purified from 42.9% (peptide crudes) to 88.6% by modified PSt column with 97.1% recovery yield. This modified PSt microspheres had a large potential in application for efficient separation of peptides.