Herstellung pfropfpolymerisierter Ionenaustauscher mit Aufklärung des Reaktionsmechanismus

A stable method to prepare anion exchangers based on polystyrene/divinylbenzene-copolymers was developed and further investigated. For the functionalization ionic styrene-derivatives were grafted onto the surface of the copolymer using its vinylic double bonds. Connections between the chemical structure and the ion exchanger properties were to be identified to possibly control the exchanger properties by using this method. It was pos-sible to identify whether the graft-polymerization was initialized on the polymer-surface or in the bulk solution. This could be influenced by using different organic solvents or different radical initiators. Additionally the influence of different method parameters on the selectivity and performance, as well as on the chemical structure of the anion exchangers was identified. It could be shown that only very short chains of anion exchanger groups were grafted onto the polymer and that the chain length did not influence the selectivity for the observed chain lengths. Further analysis of the polymer hinted that instead of the graft-polymerization process the oxidation of the polymer by the radical initiator was a key to selectivity control.