Porous polymer and process for producing the same

A polymeric porous material wherein

• (a) the porous material has a bimodal pore size distribution attributable to macropores having a pore size within a range from 1 to 2 μm and mesopores having a pore size of from 2 nm to less than 50 nm,
• (b) the proportion of the specific surface area of the macropores to the specific surface area of all pores of the porous material is at least 10%,
• (c) the porous material has a uniform structure comprising a three-dimensional continuous network skeleton structure with pores of a regular bimodal pore size distribution with symmetrical peaks of mesopore and macropore size regions and a permeability suitable for flowing through a mobile phase liquid, wherein the pores are obtained by a phase separation via viscoelastic effect of a porogen solution, and
• (d) the porous material is produced by
• (1) polymerizing a monomer comprising at least one polyvinyl monomer in the presence of a polymerization initiator and a porogen solution forming mesopores and macropores by staged phase separation of the porogen solution, wherein the porogen solution is obtained by dissolving a polymer having a weight-average molecular weight of at least 100,000 and a molecular weight distribution Mw/Mn of not more than 1.5 in a good solvent for the monomer, wherein the good solvent for the monomer has an interaction parameter to the monomer of less than 0.5 at 25° C., and wherein the good solvent and the polymer act as a porogen, and
• (2) removing the porogen from the resultant product.