Effects of cosolvent on formation and morphology of microspheres in precipitation polymerization of divinylbenzene in supercritical carbon dioxide

Precipitation polymerizations of divinylbenzene (DVB) in pure supercritical carbon dioxide, and parallel runs with presence of a cosolvent were carried out. The results showed that use of acetone as the cosolvent contributed greatly to the formation of the monodisperse microspheres. PDVB microspheres, with obviously higher uniformity than reported up to date, were achieved using 6–7 mL of acetone in a reactor of 50 mL with DVB concentration of 0.4 mol/L under 16 MPa, a much lower pressure than previously reported without use of cosolvent.