Stabilization of reactive species within polystyrene divinylbenzene polymer networks

The effect of cross-linking, surface area, and porous nature of modified polystyrene-divinylbenzene (STY-DVB) reagents has been investigated. The supports were prepared via two techniques and modified to contain various chemical functionalities. These reagents were used in an on-line reactor for automated derivatization of amines in HPLC. The reproducibility of the response vs the physical nature of the porous support and the chemical functionality was determined. The ability to stabilize highly reactive acylating reagents toward high concentrations of aqueous base was found to be a complex interaction of pore size distribution, percent cross-linking, surface area, and absolute loading of the analytical reagent on the porous support.