Effect of reaction time and temperature on the morphology and ion-exchange capacity of polystyrene beads sulfonated using different sulfonating agents

Monodisperse polystyrene (PS) beads 2.5 lm in size were synthesized by dispersion polymerization. The PS beads were chemically modified by three different sulfonating agents, namely, concentrated sulfuric acid, acetyl sulfate, and chlorosulfonic acid. When they were sulfonated using chlorosulfonic acid, the concentration of sulfonic acid (SO3-) groups on the PS beads increased from 0.5 to 2.25 meq/g as the treatment time was increased from 10 to 360 min at 0 C. As the reaction temperature was increased, the ion-exchange capacity (IEC) of the sulfonated PS beads increased. However, it can be seen that they lost their spherical shape. The PS surface was modified by the introduction of the SO3-groups to give an IEC of up to 2.28 meq/g, which provides 1.1 9 1010 SO3-groups per bead, without any deformation of their spherical shape.