Description:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>The compositional inhomogeneity and the average degree of swelling of heterogeneous styrene‐divinylbenzene (S‐DVB) copolymers were investigated using two morphological features of porous copolymers. At a fixed volume fraction of a nonsolvating diluent, the extent of inhomogeneous crosslinking increases with increasing DVB concentration. In addition, the crosslinking density of less crosslinked regions of the network decreases as the DVB concentration increases. The experimental results can be explained by the microgel‐model of the network formation. The average degree of volume swelling can be predicted from the composition of the starting monomer mixture and from the porosity of the final copolymer dried from water. Depending on these parameters, the changes in the value of v<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>, the volume fraction of copolymer in the swollen gel, and the conditions for the pore stability are discussed.</jats:p>