Synthesis of porous titania microspheres for HPLC packings by polymerization-induced colloid aggregation (PICA).

Porous titania microspheres with a very narrow particle size distribution (PSD) were synthesized by polymerization-induced colloid aggregation (PICA). After being sintered, the titania microspheres that are obtained have an average diameter of 3.5 microm, a surface area of 36.7 m2/g, an average pore volume of 0.30 mL/g, and an average pore diameter of 32.2 nm. The microspheres possess enough rigidity to withstand high packing pressure and are very useful as a new kind of chromatographic packing material for high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).