United States Patent [19] Heilmann et al. [54] POLYMERIC SUPPORTS [75] Inventors: Steven M. Heilman, Afton; Jerald K. Rasmussen, Stillwater; Larry R. Krepski, White Bear Lake; Dean S. Milbrath, Stillwater; Patrick L. Coleman, Minneapolis, all of Minn. [73] Assignee: Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, St. Paul, Minn. [ * ] Notice: The portion of the term of this patent subsequent to Oct. 3, 2006 has been disclaimed. [21] Appl. No.: 891,781 [22] Filed: Jun. 1, 1992 Related U.S. Application Data [63] Continuation of Ser. No. 335,835, Apr. 10, 1989, Pat. No. 5,292,840, which is a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 158,258, Feb. 19, 1988, Pat. No. 4,871,824, which is a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 25,605, Mar. 13, 1987, Pat. No. 4,737,560. [51] Int. CL s ................... C08F 226/06; C08F 220/58; C12N 11/08 [52] U.S. Cl ..................................... 526/260; 526/304; 526/306; 521/38; 435/180 [58] Field of Search ....................... 526/304, 260, 306; 521/38;435/180 i 11111 11111111 III 11111 11111 11111 11111 11111 11111 11111 11111 111111 III 11111 iiii US005336742A [11] Patent Number: 5,336,742 [45] Date of Patent: * Aug. 9, 1994 4,871,824 10/1989 Heilmann et al ................... 526/304 OTHER PUBLICATIONS G. L. Stahl et al., An Entirely Beaded Poly(Dime-thylacrylamide) Support for Peptide Synthesis , The Journal of Organic Chemistry, vol. 44, No. 19, Sep. 1979, pp. 3424-3425. D. I. Hoke, R. D. Robins, Preparation and Polymeri-zation of 3-Acrylamido-3-Methylbutanoic Acid , Journal of Polymer Science: Polymer Chemistry Edition, vol. 10, No. 11, Nov. 1972, New York, pp. 3311-3315. J. K. Rasmussen, S. Heilmann, and L. Krepski, Polya-zlactones , Encyclopedia of Polymer Science and Engi-neering, vol. 11, 1988, New York, pp. 558-571. R. B. Merrifield, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 85, 2149 (1963). N. K. Mathur, C. K. Narang, and R. E. Williams, Poly-mers as Aids in Organic Chemistry, Chapter 2, Academic Press, New York (1980). L. D. Taylor et al., Makromol. Chem. Rapid Commun., 3, 779 (1982). U.S. Ser. No. 07/335,284, filed Apr. 10, 1989, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,013,795. Primary Examiner—Joseph L. Schofer Assistant Examiner—Wu C. Cheng Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Gary L. Griswold; Walter N. Kim; Lorraine R. Sherman [56] References Cited U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS 3,488,327 1/1970 Kollinsky et al ................... 526/260 3,511,894 5/1970 Markert ............................... 526/260 3,583,950 6/1971 Kollinsky et al ................... 526/260 4,070,348 1/1978 Kraemer et a!.................... 260/79.3 4,157,418 6/1979 Heilmann ............................ 526/304 4,190,713 2/1980 Kraemer et al ..................... 521/149 4,208,309 6/1980 Kraemer et al ......................... 260/8 4,224,427 9/1980 Mueller ............................... 526/260 4,378,411 3/1983 Heilmann et al ................... 428/500 4,451,619 5/1984 Heilman et al ................... 525/379 4,619,867 10/1986 Charbonneau ...................... 526/260 4,694,103 9/1987 Krepski et al ...................... 562/450 4,737,560 4/1988 Heilmann et al ................... 526/304 [57] ABSTRACT Azlactone-functional polymer supports are useful reac-tive supports for the attachment of functional materials to provide novel adduct beads. The adduct beads are useful as complexing agents, catalysts, polymeric rea-gents, chromatographic supports, and as enzyme- or other biologically active supports. Novel carboxylate-functional polymer beads, are intermediates in the prep-aration of the azlactone-functional beads. Azlactone-functional supports have units of the for-mula: (Abstract continued on next page.) 5,336,742 Page 2 ing 3 to 14 carbon atoms, an aryl group having 5 to R2 v 12 ring atoms, an arenyl group having 6 to 26 car- bon and 0 to 3 S, N, and nonperoxidic 0 heteroat- N-CR3 oms, or R2 and R3 taken together with the carbon R1— i —C (CH2)„ to which they are joined can form a carbocyclic CH2 ring containing 4 to 12 ring atoms, and II n is an integer 0 or 1, T 0 the azlactone functional supports having 0.1 to 99 molar parts of crosslinking monomer incorporated therein. wherein RI is H or CH3, R2 and R3 independently can be an alkyl group hav- ing 1 to 14 carbon atoms, a cycloalkyl group hay- 13 Claims, No Drawings 1 POLYMERIC SUPPORTS FIELD OF THE INVENTION BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 5,336,742 2 The present state of reactive, insoluble supports may be summarized by the statement that no one support is broadly suitable for the many applications of solid-sup-ported materials. The spectrum of properties required varies tremendously depending on the end-use, which includes such diverse applications as mediating organic synthetic transformations, removing precious metals from sea water or heavy metal contaminants from in-dustrial effluants, utilizing supported metals as catalysts for conducting organic reactions and polymerizations, resolving optical isomers, separating biomac-romolecules, and attaching biomacromolecules. Azlactones have not been previously utilized as at-taching groups on insoluble supports. Azlactones have, however, been proposed to be useful in two instances. U.S. Pat. No. 4,070,348 teaches the preparation of water-swellable, crosslinked bead copolymers having 0.2 to 5 mol percent crosslinking monomer and at least 10 mole percent of a water soluble comonomer incorpo-rated therein. The copolymers are reactive with prote-ins primarily by the inclusion of oxirane groups which are the only reactive groups claimed. Several acti-vated carboxyl groups (col. 4; line 42), however, are listed including a 2-alkenyl azlactone, 2-isopropenyl-4,4-dimethyl-oxazolone-5 (col. 5; lines 2-3), and reac-tion of this compound with a primary amino group of a protein is depicted schematically (col. 5; lines 6-14). No additional information or enabling disclosure is given about incorporation of the azlactone into a hydrophilic, crosslinked bead copolymer or reaction of an azlactone-functional insoluble support with a protein or any other functional material. The crosslinked, bead copolymers of U.S. Pat. No. 4,070,348 are all prepared purposely in essentially an anhydrous condition, i.e. with care being taken to exclude water. L. D. Taylor, et al., Makromol. Chem., Rapid Com-mun., 3, 779 (1982) have proposed azlactones to be useful as reactive groups on polymeric supports. Only the bulk homopolymerization of 2-vinyl-4,4-dimethyla-zlactone to form a polymeric plug is described. No mention of crosslinking and generation of polymeric beads is given. Furthermore, described at some length is the susceptibility of the poly(azlactone) to hydrolysis, i.e., ring-opening reaction with water [equation (1)]. Hydrolysis is regarded as being very facile, occurring even with traces of moisture often present in organic solvents for the homopolymer, as follows: (1) 4YCH2 H CH, I/ n H2O n CN C=O I/ 0 /C H~ C —C- II 0 COZH Based on this account of the propensity toward hydro-lysis, it is entirely unexpected that an azlactone-func-tional support could be selectively reacted with a func-tional material in aqueous media. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Briefly, the present invention provides hydrophilic aziactone-functional supports, including polymer beads, This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 07/335,835 filed Apr. 10, 1989, now U.S. Pat. No. 5 5,292,840, which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 07/158,258 filed Feb. 19, 1988, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,871,824, which is a continuation-in-part of appli-cation Ser. No. 07/025,605, filed Mar. 13, 1987, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,737,560. 10 This invention relates to azlactone-functional sup-ports, including polymer beads, membranes, films, and coatings. The azlactone-functional supports are useful 15 for attachment of functional materials to provide novel adduct supports. The adduct supports are useful as complexing agents, catalysts, and polymeric reagents, as enzyme or other protein-bearing supports, and as chromatographic supports. In additional aspects, meth- 20 ods of preparation of the supports are disclosed. The attachment of useful materials such as catalysts, reagents, chelating or complexing agents, and proteins 25 to insoluble supports is well-known. With the attending advantages of ease of removal and recovery from the system, e.g., by simple filtration, regeneration (if neces-sary), and recycling coupled with the increased utiliza-tion of continuous flow systems in both general chemi- 30 cal processing and diagnostic monitoring procedures, supported materials are ubiquitous in today s technol-ogy. One indication of this is the listing of Polymer-Supported Reagents as a separate heading in the Gen-eral Subjects Index of Chemical Abstracts beginning in 35 1982. Concerning the nature of the insoluble support mate-rial, both inorganic polymers (notably silica gel and alumina) and organic polymers have been utilized. Fac-tors, however, such as increased capacity because of 40 better porosity (especially with the so-called gel-type polymers which swell somewhat and allow relatively free access by solvent and solute to the bound function-ality within the support) and better control of the polar nature of the support (by selection of appropriate coma- 45 nomers), which has been shown to directly affect reac-tion rate, have led to a general preference for the or-ganic polymer supports. Polystyrene has been the solid support material most extensively utilized. The attaching functionality for polystyrene supports 50 most often utilized has been the chloromethylphenyl group. These reactive, solid supports are the so-called Merrifield resins , so named for R. B. Merrifield (J. Am. Chem. Soc., 85, 2149 (1963)) who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1984 for these and other 55 achievements. Merrifield resins are extremely useful for conducting solid phase peptide syntheses, but their broad utilization as reactive, solid supports is limited because of the relative nonpolarity of the hydrophobic polystyrene backbone, an oftentimes unpredictable at- 60 taching reaction which involves nucleophilic displace-ment of chloride ion, and a relatively low capacity of reactable chloromethylphenyl groups per gram of poly-mer. The chloromethylphenyl and other reactive func-tionalities are discussed by N. K. Mathur, C. K. Narang, 65 and R. E. Williams, Polymers as Aids in Organic Chemistry , Chapter 2, Academic Press: New York (1980). 5,336.742 3 membranes, films, and coatings, having in the range of 0 to 99 molar parts of crosslinking monomer incorpo-rated therein. In another aspect, the present invention provides novel adduct supports which are produced by a ring 5 opening reaction between the azlactone-functional sup-ports of the invention and functional materials. The adduct supports are useful as complexing agents, cata-lysts, reagents, adsorbants, chromatographic supports, and as biologically active supports. 1C The present invention provides four methods for the preparation of supports of the invention. Several meth-ods are available for preparing azlactone-functional supports. One method is to apply alkenyl azlactone monomer to the support (optionally along with other 15 co-monomers) and polymerize the monomer(s) in place, e.g., by photopolymerization (utilizing an appropriate photoinitiator). In Process I carboxylate-functional polymer supports are prepared as intermediates to azlactone-functional 20 polymer supports by the reverse phase suspension poly-merization product of: (i) optionally, at least one free radically addition poly-merizable, water soluble monomer, (ii) at least one water-soluble salt of an N-(meth)a- 25 cryloylamino acid, and (iii) at least one crosslinking monomer. Reaction of a cyclization agent and the carboxylate-functional polymer supports just described provides azlactone-functional polymer supports. 30 In Process II of the invention the azlactone-func-tional supports can be prepared by the reverse phase suspension polymerization product of (i) optionally, at least one free radically addition poly- merizable, water soluble monomer, 35 (ii) at least one alkenyl azlactone, and (iii) at least one crosslinking monomer. In Process III of the invention the azlactone-func-tional supports can be prepared by the dispersion poly- merization reaction product of 40 (i) optionally, at least one free radically addition poly-merizable monomer, (ii) at least one alkenyl azlactone, and (iii) optionally, at least one crosslinking monomer. In Process IV of the invention azlactone-functional 45 supports can be provided by coating an azlactone-func-tional polymer onto a solid support. Reaction of the azlactone-functional supports of the invention with functional materials capable of reacting with the azlactone ring (i.e, by a ring-opening reaction) 50 provides the adduct supports of the invention. We have discovered that this adduct-forming reaction occurs to a high degree with a dissolved nucleophile in water solu-tion, especially when the nucleophile is primary amine-functional. This selectivity of reaction is even more 55 surprising when one considers that the concentration of the amine nucleophile on a protein functional material, for example, is most often substantially lower than that of the water solvent. Before the present invention, it was thought that azlactone groups would predomi- 60 nantly react with water, i.e., hydrolyze, rather than react with a dissolved nucleophile. The hydrophilic or hydrophobic nature of a support is extremely important in determining its utility. An obvious advantage of a hydrophilic support is that 65 many of the operations of supported materials are con-ducted in aqueous media. Water is virtually the exclu-sive solvent for conducting precious or noxious metal 4 ion removal, in diagnostic monitoring of components of biofluids and biosystems, as well as in a number of chemical reactions, and it is oftentimes advantageous to utilize a polymer support which will swell in water. The water solvent can facilitate the additional encounter and interaction of a solute and reactive groups within the hydrophilic support as well as at the support-water interface. Hydrophilic polymer-supported materials fmd use and are beneficial in non-aqueous systems as well. Func- tional groups which impart hydrophilicity are highly polar in nature, and supported material functions which are sensitive to solvent effects will be tremendously affected, especially in terms of rate, by the polarity of the polymer backbone. Importance of the polymer backbone in determining the local environment for a supported material has been noted by H. Morawetz, J. Macromol. ScL—Chem., A-13, 311 (1979). As has been noted above, U.S. Pat. No. 4,070,348 discloses water-swellable, crosslinked bead copolymers having 0.2 to 5 mol percent crosslinking monomer and at least 10 mole percent of a water soluble comonomer incorporated therein. The patentee desires beads having a high degree of swelling in water, i.e., 5-100 times as is disclosed in col. 6, lines 66-67. This high degree of swelling is deemed important to achieve high binding capacity with proteins. In col. 9, lines 30-32, of U.S. Pat. No. 4,070,348, it is stated that The greatest part of the biologically active substances are found in the wide mesh `hollow spaces within the swollen particles. However, many applications, particularly chromato-graphic applications, cannot conveniently utilize sup-port materials which exhibit a high degree of swelling in aqueous media. Surprisingly, we have now found that azlactone beads having remarkably high binding capacity with functional materials can be achieved with highly cross- linked beads which swell very modestly, e.g., threefold or less, in water. When, desired, a high degree of cross- linking is achieved by incorporating greater than 5 and up to 99 molar parts (mol percent) crosslinking mono-mer, preferably 7 to 99 molar parts, more preferably 10 to 99 molar parts, and most preferably 30 to 99 molar parts of at least one crosslinking monomer into the azlactone-functional polymer beads. In this application: azlactone-functional support means an article com-prising an azlactone-functional polymer or an azlactone-functional polymer coated on at least one surface of a substrate; acryloyl means not only 1-oxo-2-propenyl but also 1-oxo-2-methyl-2-propenyl resulting from metha-cryloylation reactions; alkyl means the monovalent residue remaining after removal of a hydrogen atom from a saturated linear or branched chain hydrocarbon having 1 to 14 carbon atoms; aryl means the monovalent residue remaining after removal of one hydrogen atom from an aromatic or heteroaromatic compound which can consist of one ring or two fused or catenated rings having 5 to 12 ring atoms which can include up to 3 hetero-atoms selected from S, N, and nonperoxidic O. The carbon atoms can be substituted by up to three halogen atoms, Cl-C4 alkyl, Cl-C4 alkoxy, N,N-di(Cl-C4 alkyl)amino, nitro, cyano, and Ci-C4 alkyl carboxylic ester; 5,336,742 5 6 arenyl means the monovalent residue remaining after removal of a hydrogen atom from the alkyl portion of a hydrocarbon containing both alkyl and aryl groups having 6 to 26 carbon and heteroatoms (wherein the heteroatoms are up to 3 S, N, and nonperoxidic 0 atoms); azlactone means 2-oxazolin-5-one groups of For-mula I and 2-oxazin-6-one groups of Formula II; ing 3 to 14 carbon atoms, an aryl group having 5 to 12 ring atoms, an arenyl group having 6 to 26 car-bon and 0 to 3 S, N, and nonperoxidic 0 heteroat- 5 oms, or R2 and R3 taken together with the carbon to which they are joined can form a carbocyclic ring containing 4 to 12 ring atoms, and n is an integer 0 or 1. 10 These supports may be crosslinked azlactone- func-tional polymeric beads or they may be solid substrates coated on at least one surface with a layer of an azlac-tone-functional polymer. This layer may have a thick- 15 ness in the range of I nanometer to 5 mm. Useful solid substrates include inorganic solids such as glass, ceram-ics, unfired metal and nonmetal oxides, clays, zeolites, and organic polymers. Also provided by this invention are adduct supports 20 having the formula VI O R2 0 25 R1— iIII I II —C—NH i(CH2)n CXG CH2 R3 30 N—C- / —c o—C 0 II 1/ / N—C / —C c/; O—C 0 parts means parts by weight unless otherwise speci- fied; carboxylate means O —CO—M+ wherein M is hydrogen, ammonium, or an alkali metal such as Li, Na, or K; macroporous refers to crosslinked polymers in which the level of crosslinker or difunctional mon- 35 omers is greater than 20 parts, with no polymer non-solvent or porogen utilization being required; biologically active refers to substances which are biochemically, immunochemically, physiologically or pharmaceutically active such as antibodies, anti- 40 genic substances, . enzymes, cofactors, inhibitors, lectins, hormones, receptors, coagulation factors, amino acids, histones, vitamins, drugs, cell surface markers, and substances which interact with them; gel-type refers to crosslinked polymers in which 45 the level of crosslinkers or difunctional monomers is less than 20 parts. Structures and formulae depicted between parenthe-ses are partial structures of polymers. wherein R1, R2, R3, and n are as previously defined, X can be —0—, —S—, —NH—, or —NR4 wherein R4 can be alkyl or aryl, and G is the residue of HXG which performs the adsorb-ing, complexing, catalyzing, separating, or reagent function of the adduct beads. HXG can be a biologically active substance, dye, catalyst, reagent, and the like. The azlactone-functional supports of this invention are provided by one of several processes: DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE 50 PROCESS I INVENTION Two-step Reverse Phase Suspension Polymerization The present invention provides azlactone-functional supports having on at least one of their surfaces units of Formula V: The polymer and adduct supports of Process I of the 55 invention can be provided according to the process depicted by Chemical Equations I, below. R2 V / N—C—R3 R1— i —C SCH2)n CH2 O- 1 0 II CHEMICAL EQUATIONS (PROCESS I) I 1 R2 water 1 R cross- soluble + CH2=C—CNHC—(CH2)„CO2-M+ + linking monomers I monomers R3 acid salt wherein 65 III Rl1 is H or CH3, I step 1 R2 and R3 independently can be an alkyl group hay- y s P ing 1 to 14 carbon atoms, a cycloalkyl group hay- 7 -continued CHEMICAL EQUATIONS (PROCESS I) I O R2 II I R — i —C—NH i(CH2)nCo2—M+ CH2 R3 carboxylate-functional supports IV cyclization step 2 agent 2 N R1—I—i C-R3 CH2 O (CH2)fl C/ 0 azlactone-functional supports V 5,336,742 E:3 group-containing compounds. A representative list of such monomers includes acrylamide, methacrylamide, N,N-dimethylacrylamide, diacetoneacrylamide, N-vinylpyrrolidone, hydroxyethyl methacrylate, 2- 5 acrylamido-2-methylpropanesulfonic acid and its salts, N-(3-methacrylamidopropyl)-N,N,N-trimethylam- monium salts, N,N-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate, acrylic acid, methacrylic acid, itaconic acid, and combi-nations thereof. Preferred water soluble monomers are 10 N,N-dimethylacrylamide and N-vinylpyrrolidone. The N-acryloylamino acid salt monomers include ammonium, sodium, potassium, and lithium salts of N-acryloylamino acids of Formula VII and are pre-pared by mixing (at 30° C.) equal molar quantities of 15 aqueous solutions of, for example, ammonium hydrox-ide, sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, or lithium hydroxide and the Formula VII compounds. 20 R1 O R2 VII CH2=C— ICNH i —(CH2CO2H R3 functional I 25 wherein R1, R2, R3, and n are as previously defined. material step 3 The N-acryloylamino acid compounds are well-known HXG and can be readily synthesized. For Formula VII com- pounds in which n=0, either the sodium salt of the O R2 O appropriate amino acid can be acryloylated, for exam- ple, according to K. Huebner, et al., Makromol. Chem., R1—C—CI 30 NHC(CH2)5CXG 11, 109 (1970) or, more efficiently, by the method de- CH2 R3 scribed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,694,103 which involves the one-pot transformation of a ketone into an N- T acryloylamino acid. For Formula VII compounds VI 35 wherein n= 1, a useful preparation is the transformation adduct supports of 3,3-disubstituted acrylic acids as disclosed by D. I. Hoke, et al., J. Polym. Sci.: Polym. Chem. Ed., 10, 3311 The crosslinked hydrophilic, azlactone-functional (1972). polymer beads of Formula .V are prepared by a novel Insolubilization is a necessary condition for easy re- two-step process. In the first step the following group of 40 moval of the support (e.g., beads) from the system. This monomers is subjected to a free radical polymerization is accomplished by inclusion of a monomer which con- reaction: i) 0 to 89 molar parts of at least one water soluble tains a plurality of polymerizable groups and whose participation in a polymerization reaction results in the monomer; ii) 1 to 99.9 molar parts of at least one water soluble physical joining of polymer backbones or crosslinking. salt of N-(meth)acryloylamino acid; and 45 Crosslinking is also desirable in polymer-supported of 0.1 iii) in the range of 0.1 to 99 molar parts, preferably 7 materials because the mechanical stability is generally to 99, more preferably 10 to 99, and most prefers- substantially enhanced and some degree of control of bly 30 to 99 molar parts, of at least one crosslinking bead size can be exercized by manipulation of the level monomer. of crosslinking, i.e., in general for a given polymeriza- The product of the above polymerization reaction is 50 tion condition, the greater the amount of crosslinker the the crosslinked, hydrophilic, carboxylate-functional smaller the bead size. The degree of crosslinking de- of Formula IV. The second step of the process step pends primarily on the intended use of the support ma- involves involves treating the carboxylate-functional supports terial. In all instances the polymers are insoluble in all with a cyclization agent to form the azlactone-func- solvents and possess a molecular weight which is essen- tional supports of the invention. 55 tially infinite. For many applications requiring fairly The degree of hydrophilicity of the polymer support high capacities and involving relatively small solute is largely determined by the amount of water soluble reaction partners which can diffuse into the swollen monomer employed, although some hydrophilicity is polymer support, low to moderate degrees of crosslink- imparted by the crosslinker and by the functional ing are desired. According to D. C. Sherrington, Br. groups created, i.e., amide-amide, amide-ester, or 60 Polym. J., 16, 164 (1984), these crosslinked swellable amide-thiolester with amine, alcohol, or thiol nucleo- supports (referred to as gel-type polymers) result philes (HXG as defined above), by the ring-opening, from inclusion of from 1 to 20 parts of a multifunctional azlactone/nucleophile reaction (step 3 of Chemical monomer. For certain applications requiring low de- Equations I). Therefore, in the strictest sense of the grees of physical expansion due to swelling and which present invention, inclusion of a water soluble monomer 65 can tolerate lower capacities, (as in certain operations is optional. Suitable water soluble monomers exhibit a conducted in confined flow systems such as chromato- solubility of at least 3 parts in 100 parts water. Preferred graphic columns or column reactors), highly cross- monomers include vinyl group-containing and acryloyl linked hydrophobic systems resulting from copolymer- 5,336,742 9 ization of more than 20 parts of a multifunctional mono-mer are utilized. These are so-called macroporous polymers which are generally regarded as being non-swelling, and solute/support reactions occur primarily at the solvent/support interface. Applications of these 5 supports may involve large solutes, e.g., biomac-romolecules, which cannot, because of their large size, diffuse into the polymer network. In sum, the prior art teaches that in hydrophobic systems 20 parts or more of crosslinker results in a non- 10 swelling system. We have found with the hydrophilic supports of the present invention, however, that in order to achieve a condition of low swelling in aqueous media, a substan- 15 tially greater concentration of multifunctional mono-mer is necessary than the 20 parts commonly utilized in the so-called non-swelling, hydrophobic, macroporous resins described above. This may be a consequence of the utilization of these hydrophilic supports in water 20 and the high degree of hydrophilicity imparted by the multifunctional monomers themselves, as they consist largely of highly polar functional groups. The prior art generally has taught polymer supports (beads) comprising hydrophobic comonomers and hy- 25 drophobic crosslinking monomers in order to achieve crosslinked polymer beads. These were known to be swellable when 1 to 20 parts of crosslinker were pres-ent. Above 20 parts of difunctional monomer (cross-linker) provided essentially non-swelling beads. U.S. 30 Pat. No. 4,070,348 teaches that 0.2 to 5 mol % of cross-linking monomer provides beads with a high degree of swelling in water. The patentee believes that this low degree of crosslinking and accompanying high degree of swelling is necessary to achieve high binding capac- 35 ity. In the instant invention, hydrophilic comonomers and hydrophilic crosslinkers are utilized. Swelling of beads so produced varies inversely with the amount of multifunctional crosslinker present. Polymer supports ` 0 (e.g., beads packed together) with a low degree of swelling (less than 3 times the unswelled volume) gener-ally require substantially greater than 20 parts of difunc-tional crosslinker. Surprisingly, there can still be a relatively low degree 45 of swelling and high binding capacities of polymer beads in water with more than 5 mol % crosslinker (in hydrophilic systems). Such beads are useful as complex-ing agents, catalysts, polymeric reagents, chromato- graphic supports, and enzyme-, other protein-, and 50 other biomacromolecule-bearing supports. To achieve polymer beads with a low degree of swelling and still maintain high binding capacity, sub-stantially greater amounts of crosslinker are required in 55 hydrophilic systems. Such polymer beads are particu-larly useful in chromatographic applications and col-umn reactors. Suitable multifunctional crosslinking monomers in-clude ethylenically unsaturated (a,/3-unsaturated) esters 60 such as ethylene diacrylate, ethylene dimethacrylate, trimethylolpropane triacrylate and trimethacrylate, and a,a-unsaturated amides, such as methylenebis(acryla-mide), methylenebis(methacrylamide), N,N -diacryloyl-1,2-diaminoethane, N,N -dimethacryloyl-1,2-diaminoe- 65 thane, and reaction products of 2-alkenyl az1actones and short chain diamines such as those represented by For-mulae VIII and IX: 10 O CH3 0 II II 0 CH3 0 VIII II II CH2=CHCNH i -CNHCHZCHZHNC- i -HNCHC=CH2 CH3 CH3 CH3 0 CH3 0 OCH3 OCH3 IX II I II III II CH2=C-CNH i -CNHCH2CHZHNC i -HNCC=CH2 CH3 CH3 The crosslinking monomers should be at least sparingly soluble in water but need not be as water soluble as defined for the water soluble monomer component. This is not generally a problem for the preparation of gel-type polymers because relatively small proportions of the crosslinking monomers are utilized with rela-tively large quantities of water solvent, and often the water soluble monomer component, especially N,N-dimethylacrylamide and N-vinylpyrrolidone, will facili-tate solution of the crosslinking monomer. For macro-porous polymers, however, in which the concentration of crosslinking monomer is greater than 20 parts it may be necessary to add a co-solvent which will facilitate dissolution of the crosslinking monomer. Suitable co-solvents include N,N-dimethylformamide, N,N-dime-thylacetamide, N-methylpyrrolidone, and dimethylsulf-oxide. The technique of polymerization employed in the present invention PROCESS I is often referred to as reverse-phase or inverse suspension polymeriza-tion, and a general discussion of this technique is dis-closed by M. Munzer, et al., Suspension Polymeriza-tions from Non-Aqueous Media , in Polymerization Processes edited by C. E. Schildknecht and I. Skeist, Wiley-Interscience, New York, pp. 123-124 (1977). The reversal of the normal suspension polymerization tech-nique (in which water is the usual suspending medium) is necessary because the monomers of the present inven-tion are soluble in water and therefore require a water immiscible suspending medium. The primary purpose of the suspending medium, besides functioning as an inert medium for dispersion of the polymerizable phase, is to dissipate the heat gener-ated in the polymerization reaction. An important char-acteristic of the suspending medium is its density. In order to obtain spherical polymer beads of uniform size, the beads, once formed, should not exhibit a tendency to sink or float in the suspending medium. Therefore, the suspending medium and aqueous phases should be of approximately the same density. The actual polymerization occurs in individual drop-lets of water containing the dissolved monomers and initiator. The droplets are formed and maintained in the suspending medium by vigorous agitation, and the re-sultant beads size and individuality (i.e., lack of aggre-gation) are controlled by the addition of various sus-pending agents which are surface active molecules that generally contain both hydrophobic and hydrophilic parts. In and of itself, the polymerization step (step one) is not a novel aspect of the present invention. As is appar-ent to one skilled in the art, the nature of the suspending medium, the amount of water employed, the initiation system, the amount of crosslinking agent, the stirring rate, and the suspending agent are all essentially inde-pendent and important variables that determine the shape and size of the polymeric beads. While not wish- 11 5,336,742 12 ing to be bound by any particular set of polymerization -continued conditions, we have found the reverse-phase suspension CHEMICAL EQUATIONS IA polymerization procedure described by G. L. Stahl, et al., J. Org. Chem, 44, 3424 (1979) to be exceedingly useful. In that procedure a mixture of heptane and car-bon tetrachloride is utilized as the suspending medium; the initiation system is the ammonium persul-fate/N,N,N ,N -tetramethyl-1,2-diaminoethane redox couple; the stirring rate is 300 rpm; and the suspending agent is sorbitan sesquioleate. Substitution of the van- 10 ~ 2 (CH2)n O(CA) R1—C—C C II e HN i —R2 ® R3 ous components by comparable materials can certainly be made, and such substitutions would not be outside 15 the spirit and scope of the present invention. For exam-ple, utilizing a polymeric stabilizer such as copoly(i- sooctylacrylate/acrylic acid) or copoly(hexylacrylate/- sodium acrylate) instead of sorbitan sesquioleate was 20 found to provide more consistently nonaggregated bead products. Step two of PROCESS I of the invention consists of wherein R1, R2, R3, and n are as defined above. t R1—C----C 00 / / C CH2 ~I (CH2) + HO(CA) N C—R2 R3 R conversion of the carboxylate-functional beads into 25 azlactone-functional beads. This is accomplished using a cyclization agent (CA). A cyclization agent is a rea-gent that can react with the carboxylate-functional beads to form an intermediate adduct which is suscepti- 30 ble to intramolecular attack by the amide carbonyl group to form azlactone groups according to CHEMI-CAL EQUATIONS IA. This susceptibility is chiefly accomplished by forming a good leaving group 35 (—O(CA) below) for the nucleophilic attack by the carbonyl. 40 CHEMICAL EQUATIONS IA 0 O IC Oe R —C / Cyclization C CH (CH2)n  Agent 45 CH2 HN C—R2 (CA) -f 13 R (Structures and formulae depicted between parenthe-ses are partial structures of polymers depicting side chains that actively participate in the cyclization reac-tion. Use of brackets has the usual meaning of chemical intermediates or activated complexes. Dotted lines mean partial bonds, and S means partial ionic charges.) Useful cyclization agents for transformation of the carboxylate-functional supports include, by way of ex-ample, acetic anhydride, trifluoroacetic anhydride, and alkyl chloroformates such as methyl, ethyl, and isopro-pyl chloroformates. Carbodiimides such as N,N -dicy-clohexylcarbodiimide can be effectively utilized but require an additional step of acidifying the carboxylate-functional supports to form carboxyl-functional sup-ports which can then be cyclized to azlactone-func-tional supports using the carbodiimide reagent. To facil-itate understanding of the cyclization step of the inven-tion, the intermediates that would result by employing the aforementioned cyclization agents are depicted below in order of mention. 50 O O O II 0 / Ill / 0 COCCH3 CH3 Ri C (CH2)n I I R1—C C (CH2)n CH2 HN C—R2 55 CH2 HN C—R2 R3 + R3 O O 60 ~l o II O( Rl— i C C O(CA) /0 COCCF3 C 2 (CH2)n R1— i i (CH2,, SA I HNC—R2 65 CH2 HN C—R2 + R3 R3 13 5,336,742 14 -continued CHEMICAL EQUATIONS II (PROCESS Il) 00 11 11 1 /R3 0 COCOalkyl 5 R1 N—C CH 1 — I water soluble 1 crosslinking R i . i (i H2)n + 2=C—C CH2)n monomers monomers ~ S f 2 HN CR2 O—C/~ R3 0 10 Alkenyl Azlactone X 0 HNC6H11 O CO—C II II R1 C/ (CH2)n N—C6H11 15 CH2 HN C—R2 R2 20 The progress of the cyclization reaction can be easily monitored by examination of the infrared spectrum of the polymer supports. Appearance of a carbonyl stretching absorption at about 1820 cm- I is evidence of 25 azlactone groups. Indeed, one reason azlactone groups are so useful as linkages for covalent attachment to polymers is the ability to monitor reactions by observa-tion of this infrared absorption, either the appearance of 30 it in the synthesis of the azlactone-functional supports or the disappearance of it in the subsequent reaction with a functional material. This absorption is strong, very characteristic of azlactones, and located in a re- gion of the infrared spectrum where essentially no other 35 common absorptions are observed. This is a decided advantage over other linking functional groups such as the chloromethylphenyl and oxirane which lack these unique features in their infrared spectra. A convenient 40 analytical method for monitoring attaching reactions really does not exist with these latter groups. Because of its low cost, availability, and liquid state at cyclization temperatures, acetic anhydride is a pre- 45 ferred cyclization agent. Typically, the carboxylate-functional supports are covered with acetic anhydride, and the mixture is warmed at temperatures from 40°-100° C., preferably 80°-100° C., for a period of 2-24 hours. After the cyclization reaction, the polymer sup- 50 ports are filtered. What also makes acetic anhydride particularly preferred is that the by-product of cycliza-tion, the alkali metal acetate salt, is fairly soluble in acetic anhydride and can easily be removed from the 55 azlactone-functional supports. The supports can then be dried directly or, as is often conducted, subjected to a series of washing operations with non-reactive organic solvents such as acetone, toluene, ethyl acetate, hep- 60 tane, and chloroform prior to drying. PROCESS II One-Step Reverse Phase Suspension Polymerization 65 Polymeric supports of PROCESS II of the invention are provided according to the process depicted in CHEMICAL EQUATIONS II, below. I R2 R3 —C ~N R— —C SCH2)n / CH2 O—C O Azlactone-Functional Supports V This process is conducted by the same polymeriza-tion technique as that employed in PROCESS I, and employs the same water soluble monomers and cross-linkers. The major difference is in the utilization of an alkenyl azlactone monomer X instead of the N-acryloylamino acid salt III. The amounts of reactants can be the same as for PROCESS I except that azlac-tone replaces the salt of N-(meth)acryloylamino acid. This process advantageously provides azlactone-func-tional polymer supports V in a single step, as opposed to the two-step process of PROCESS I. Several aspects of this process are surprising in light of the prior art. First of all, the alkenyl azlactones X are fairly soluble in the suspending medium, yet they become readily incorpo-rated in the polymer support (e.g., beads) without detri-mental effects upon the polymerization process. (This is in sharp contrast to what is observed employing the teachings of U.S. Pat. No. 4,070,348 (See Examples 47 and 48 below.)) Secondly, the azlactone ring is not hydrolyzed by the water in the aqueous phase during this polymerization process. This is also remarkable considering the teachings of U.S. Pat. No. 4,070,348 and of Taylor, supra. After the polymerization process, the beads can be isolated, for example, by filtration, and subjected to a series of washing steps, if desired, and dried. Useful azlactone monomers and their syntheses are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,378,411 and in Polyazlac-tones , Encyclopedia of Polymer Science and Engi-neering, Vol. 11, Second Edition, Wiley, N.Y., 1988, pp. 558-571, both of which are incorporated herein by reference, and include: 2-vinyl-4,4-dimethyl-2-oxazolin-5-one, 2-isopropenyl-4,4-dimethyl-2-oxazolin-5-one, 2-vinyl-4,4-diethyl-2-oxazolin-5-one, 2-vinyl-4-ethyl-4-methyl-2-oxazolin-5-one, 2-vinyl-4-dodecyl-4-methyl-2-oxazolin-5-one, 2-vinyl-4,4-pentamethylene-2-oxazolin-5-one, 2-vinyl-4-methyl-4-phenyl-2-oxazolin-5-one, 2-isopropenyl-4-benzyl-4-methyl-2-oxazolin-5-one, and 2-vinyl-4,4-dimethyl-1,3-oxazin-6-one. Preferred azlactone monomers are 5,336,742 15 2-vinyl-4,4-dimethyl-2-oxazolin-5-one (which is com-mercially available from SNPE, Inc., Princeton, N.J.), 2-isopropenyl-4,4-dimethyl-2-oxazolin-5-one, and 2-vinyl-4, 4-dimethyl-1, 3-oxazin-6-one. PROCESS III Dispersion Polymerization Polymeric supports of PROCESS III of the invention are provided by a polymerization process termed dis- 10 persion polymerization , and in particular, by disper-sion polymerization in organic media. In this process which is somewhat analogous to PROCESS II, the monomers and solvent are initially homogeneous. Shortly after polymerization begins, polymer separates 15 as particles and the polymerization then continues in a heterogeneous manner. Polymeric dispersants or stabilizers are typically used to prevent aggregation of polymer particles during the polymerization process. Techniques for dispersion polymerization in non-aque- 20 ous media are well-known in the art, and are described in detail, for example, by K. E. J. Barrett in Dispersion Polymerization in Organic Media , Wiley, N.Y., 1975. A dispersion polymerization technique which has proven advantageous for the preparation of azlactone- 25 functional supports of the present invention of PRO-CESS III is that described by Y. Almog, et al., Brit. Polym. J., 1982, 131, which is incorporated herein by reference. In general, azlactone-functional polymer supports of 30 Formula V are prepared according to PROCESS III by subjecting to a free radical polymerization reaction the following group of monomers: i) 1-100 molar parts of at least one alkenyl azlactone of Formula X; 35 ii) 0-99 molar parts of at least one crosslinking mono-mer; and iii) 0-99 molar parts of at least one comonomer. Suitable crosslinking monomers for use in this poly-merization process include the ones useful for PRO- 40 CESSES I and II. However, since water solubility is not a criterion in dispersion polymerization but rather solubility in the dispersing medium, other crosslinkers may be utilized such as, for example, divinyl com- pounds such as divinylbenzene. 45 Comonomers useful for the preparation of supports according to PROCESS III include the water soluble comonomers useful in PROCESSES I and II, but again include additional comonomers which are not water soluble. Virtually any free radically polymerizable mon- 50 omer may be utilized as comonomer subject to the re-quirement that it have initial solubility in the dispersing medium. Examples include: the vinyl aromatic monomers such as styrene, a-methylstyrene, 2- and 4-vinylpyridine; 55 a,/3-unsaturated carboxylic acids such as acrylic acid, methacrylic acid, itaconic acid, maleic acid, fumaric acid, and crotonic acid; a,/3-unsaturated carboxylic acid derivatives such as methyl methacrylate, butyl methac-rylate, 2-ethylhexyl methacrylate, ethyl acrylate, butyl 60 acrylate, iso-octyl acrylate, octadecyl acrylate, cyclo-hexyl acrylate, tetrahydrofurfuryl methacrylate, phenyl acrylate, phenethyl acrylate, benzyl methacrylate, a-cyanoethyl acrylate, maleic anhydride, diethyl itacon-ate, acrylamide, methacrylonitrile, N,N-dimethyla- 65 crylamide, and N-butylacrylamide; vinyl esters of car-boxylic acids such as vinyl acetate and vinyl 2-ethylhex-anoate; vinyl halides such as vinyl chloride and vinyli- 16 dene chloride; vinyl alkyl ethers such as methyl vinyl ether, 2-ethylhexyl vinyl ether, and butyl vinyl ether; olefins such as ethylene; N-vinyl compounds such as N-vinylpyrrolidone and N-vinylcarbazole; vinyl ke-tones such as methyl vinyl ketone; and vinyl aldehydes such as acrolein and methacrolein. As is well known to one skilled in the art of dispersion polymerization, an inert diluent or dispersing medium must be chosen which will dissolve the monomer or monomer mixture but will precipitate the polymer as it forms. This presents a particular problem when prepar-ing crosslinked polymers, since they are insoluble in all solvents. Therefore a dispersing medium must be chosen which will favor the separation of discrete parti-cles during the polymerization process rather than for-mation of a crosslinked mass. A useful concept to aid in the determination of dispersing media or in choosing appropriate monomer mixtures which may be disper-sion polymerized in a particular medium is the concept of solubility parameter. This concept and its relation-ship to dispersion polymerization is discussed in detail by Barrett, supra (Chapter 4). Tables of solubility pa-rameter values for many solvents and some polymers, as well as methods for the estimation of solubility parame-ter values for polymers and copolymers, can be found in Polymer Handbook, J. Brandrup and E. H. Immergut, Editors, 2nd Edition, Wiley, New York, 1975, p. IV-337ff. In general, for a successful dispersion polymeriza-tion, the solubility parameter of the dispersing medium and of the polymer being formed should differ by at least about 1 to 1.5 solubility parameter units, preferably by 1.5 to 2 or more solubility parameter units. There-fore, for most monomer mixtures, solvents useful as dispersing media include nonpolar hydrocarbons such as pentane, hexane, petroleum ether, cyclohexane, and toluene, and the polar, hydroxylic solvents such as the alcohols methanol, ethanol, isopropanol, and t-butanol. Initiators useful for PROCESS III of the invention include all free radical initiators which are soluble in the dispersing medium. Choice of the initiator will depend, as is well known in the art, upon the temperature at which the polymerization is conducted. Initiators useful at elevated temperatures, such as at 50° C. or higher, include azo compounds, such as azobisisobutyronitrile, and peroxides or hydroperoxides such as benzoylperox-ide, di-t-butylperoxide, t-butylhydroperoxide, and cu-mene hydroperoxide. For lower temperature reactions, for example at room temperature, redox initiators may be utilized such as, for example, peroxides or hydroper-oxides in combination with a tertiary amine. One such redox system is benzoyl peroxide/N,N-dimethylaniline. Initiators can be present in an amount in the range of 0.1 to 10 weight percent of the monomer composition, preferably 0.5 to 2.0 weight percent. As mentioned above, the dispersion polymerization procedure of Almog, et al., has been used effectively for the preparation of azlactone-functional supports by PROCESS III. This procedure employs an alcohol as the dispersing medium, and azobisisobutyronitrile as the initiator. A polymeric stabilizer such as polyvinylpyr-rolidone, poly(vinyl methyl ether), polyacrylic acid, or polyethyleneimine is used in conjunction with Aliquat 336 (Henkel Corporation) as cosurfactant. Again a sur-prising and unexpected result of this procedure is that azlactone-functional polymer supports, both cross-linked and noncrosslinked, may be prepared in one step in this hydroxylic medium without reaction of the alco- 5,336.742 17 hol solvent with the aziactone. Isolation involves a simple filtration, washing if desired, and drying. While the beads prepared by the three processes de-scribed above all exhibit azlactone functionality on their surfaces, their physical properties may vary widely 5 depending upon the process used for their preparation. The beads prepared via reverse phase suspension poly-merizations are generally highly porous (i.e., 10 to 90 volume percent voids, preferably 20 to 75 volume per-cent voids), with large surface areas and pore volumes, 10 and have a high density of reactive groups. These beads are useful for applications in which binding capacities are of relatively more importance than are reaction kinetics. Beads produced by dispersion polymerizations, on the other hand, are generally smaller in size and are 15 much less porous, in some instances being virtually nonporous. With these beads, reaction kinetics are very fast, a characteristic which can be particularly useful in certain applications such as those requiring higher throughput rates. 20 PROCESS IV Coating Solid Supports With Uncrosslinked Azlactone Polymers As noted above, polymeric supports of the invention 25 can be in the form of beads. This is a physical form in which the supports possess great utility, particularly for uses such as packing chromatographic columns. How-ever, the new materials are not restricted to the physical form of beads. We have found that certain soluble azlac- 30 tone polymers (uncrosslinked) can also be coated on a number of substrates and they exhibit the same reactive azlactone functionality in these forms as they do as beads. Thus, these substrates may be used for reaction with functional materials. For example, nylon filtration 35 membranes and glass surfaces can be coated with azlac-tone polymers of this invention, by dipping the object to be coated into a solution of the polymer and allowing the dipped object to dry. Similarly, particulate material, such as ceramics (e.g., zirconium oxide) or unreactive 40 polymers, such as particles of polyethylene, can be coated with azlactone functional polymers. Other solu-tion coating methods well known in the art may be used, such as for example spray coating and knife coat-ing, depending upon the physical form of the substrate. 45 Similar results have been obtained when silica beads were used as a substrate upon which azlactone-func-tional polymers of this invention were coated. This kind of bead is commonly used as a packing in chromato-graphic columns. Likewise, using glass beads of con- 50 trolled pore size, again a common column packing me-dium, significantly improved protein binding and cova-lent binding have been found when using an azlactone-functional coating. Particular advantages of azlactone-functional supports of PROCESS IV are their incom- 55 pressibility and almost complete lack of swelling. The azlactone functional polymers useful for prepar-ing coatings on solid substrates are well known in the art or can be prepared by techniques well known in the art. These polymers are prepared in general by free 60 radical polymerization of one or more alkenyl azlac-tones, optionally with one or more free radically poly-merizable, ethylenically unsaturated comonomers, using polymerization procedures common in the art. Suitable azlactone containing polymers and copolymers 65 are described, for example, in R. Huebner, et al., Angew. Makromol. Chem., 1970, 11, 109 and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,378,411. Particularly suitable azlactone-functional 18 polymers for preparing coatings on solid supports can be prepared by reacting a portion of the azlactone groups of the above azlactone-containing homopoly-mers or copolymers with a lower alkyl amine or alco-hol. Other methods are available for preparing azlactone-functional supports. One method is to apply alkenyl azlactone monomer to the support (optionally along with other co-monomers) and polymerize the mono-mer(s) in place. Methods of polymerization include photopolymerization (utilizing an appropriate photoini-tiator) as is well known in the art. The azlactone-functional polymer supports of the invention have now been formed and are ready for reaction with a functional material. As indicated earlier, a surprising discovery was that functional materials can often be attached to azlactone-functional supports of the invention in solvents such as water that have hereto-fore been thought of as being reactive with azlactones. Material as used herein means the principal chemical entity that is desired to be attached to a polymer support to accomplish a specific purpose. Stated another way, material means that portion or residue of the func-tional material which actually performs the adsorbing, complexing, catalytic, or reagent end-use. Functional for purposes of this invention means that portion of the functional material which contains a group that can react with an azlactone. Functional groups useful in the present invention include hydroxy, primary amine, secondary amine, and thiol. These groups react, either in the presence or absence of suitable catalysts, with azlactones by nucleophilic addition as depicted in equa-tion (2) below. R2 (2) NV RI—C—C C—R3 I CH2 I I (CH2) ~~ o c 0 0 O II XG CXG RI (CH),,2) I I CH2 HN C—R2 R13 wherein RI, R2, R3, n, X, and G are as previously de-fined. Depending on the functional group present in the functional material, catalysts may be required to achieve effective attaching reaction rates. Primary amine functional groups require no catalysts. Acid cata-lysts such as trifluoroacetic acid, ethanesulfonic acid, toluenesulfonic acid, and the like are effective with hydroxy and secondary amine functional groups. Amine bases such as triethylamine, 1,8-diazabicy-clo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene (DBU) and 1,5-diazabicy-clo[4.3.0]non-5-ene (DBN) (both availabale from Ald-rich Chemical Co., Milwaukee, Wis.) are effective as well for hydroxy and thiol functional groups. The level of catalyst employed is generally from 1 to 10 parts, preferably 1 to 5 parts, based on 100 parts of azlactone. 5,336,742 19 As is apparent to one skilled in the art, specific reac-tion conditions such as solvent, temperature, level of catalyst, etc. vary tremendously depending on the func-tional material that is to be attached. Because of the myriad of functional materials that have been or could 5 be attached to polymer supports, any listing of func-tional materials beyond the generic HXG of equation (2) and CHEMICAL EQUATIONS I would be incom-plete and somewhat unnecessary, as the inventive as-pects of the present invention do not reside with the 10 functional materials. What is novel is that these func-tional materials can be covalently bound to azlactone functional supports. Having described the invention in general terms, objects and advantages of the invention are more specif- 15 ically illustrated by the following examples. The partic-ular materials and amounts thereof recited in the exam-ples, as well as other conditions and details, should not be construed to unduly limit this invention. In the Ex-amples below numbers in parentheses () are in weight 20 percent, and those in brackets [ ] are in mole percent. EXAMPLE 1 This example teaches the preparation of an azlactone 25 functional support according to PROCESS I. Preparation of Copoly(N,N-Dimethylacrylamide: 2-Vinyl-4,4-Dimethylazlactone:Methylenebisacryla-mide) (46:46:8) [54.8:39.0:6.1] Step 1: Preparation of Copoly(N,N-Dimethylacryla- 30 wide (DMA): N-Acryloylmethylalanine Sodium Salt (NaAMA):Methylenebisacrylamide (MBA)) (44.6:50.4:7.8): A two-liter creased, round bottomed flask equipped with a mechanical stirrer (stirring rate 35 about 300 rpm), nitrogen inlet, thermometer, and con-denser was charged with heptane (1043 mL) and carbon tetrachloride (565 mL). This solution was stirred and sparged with nitrogen for 15 minutes. A separate solu-tion was prepared consisting of a sodium hydroxide 40 solution (6.6 grams; 0.165 mole dissolved in 85 mL of water), N-acryloylmethylalanine (AMA) (25.98 grams; 0.165 mole), DMA (23 grams; 0.232 mole), MBA (4 grams; 0.026 mole), and ammonium persulfate (1 gram; 0.004 mole) and added to the organic suspending me- 45 dium. Sorbitan sesquioleate (Arlacel TM 83, ICI Ameri-cas, Inc., Wilmington, Del.) (2 mL) was added and the mixture stirred and sparged with nitrogen for 15 min-utes. N,N,N ,N -tetramethyl-1,2-diaminoethane (2 mL) was added and the reaction temperature rose fairly 50 quickly from 21° C. to 33° C. The mixture was stirred at room temperature for three hours. The mixture was efficiently filtered using a D (greater than 21 microm-eters) sintered glass funnel, and the filter cake washed thoroughly and repeatedly with acetone. After drying 55 at 60° C. and less than 1 Torr. for 12 hours, the dry solid (52 grams) was sieved and separated into four fractions: beads less than 38 micrometers, 12.32 grams; beads between 38 and 63 micrometers, 19.83 grams; beads between 63 and 90 micrometers, 4.56 grams; and beads 60 greater than 90 micrometers, 13.95 grams. Employing an optical microscope arrangement consisting of a Nikon Nomarski Differential Interference Contrast Microscope, a Dage Newvicon video camera, a Sony video recorder, and a Perceptive Systems, Inc. digi- 65 tal image processor with accompanying software, it was determined that the 38-63 micrometer sample consisted of quite spherical beads (average aspect ratio=0.87) 20 which swell in water with an accompanying increase in diameter of from 35-50%. Step 2: Cyclization to Copoly(DMA:2-vinyl-4,4-dimethylaziactone (VDM):MBA) (46:46:8): Acetic an-hydride (100 mL) was added to 15.1 grams of the 38-63 micrometer beads prepared in Step 1. The mixture was heated to 100° C. for two hours. After cooling and filtering, the beads were placed in a Soxhlet extraction apparatus and were extracted with ethyl acetate for 16 hours. After drying at 60° C. and less than I Torr., the beads weighed 12.6 grams. EXAMPLE 2 This example teaches use of the reaction product of 1,2-diaminoethane and VDM as a crosslinking mono-mer (PROCESS I). Preparation of N,N -bis(2-acrylamido-2-methylpropionyl)-1,2- diaminoethane A 100 mL, three-necked, round bottomed flask equipped with a magnetic stirring bar, a dropping fun-nel, thermometer, and condenser was charged with VDM (13.9 grams; 0.10 mole) and tetrahydrofuran (50 mL). A solution of 1,2-diaminoethane (3.0 grams; 0.05 mole) in tetrahydrofuran (10 mL) was added dropwise such that the temperature did not exceed 30° C. After stirring overnight the reaction mixture was filtered to remove a white solid which after washing with hexane and drying at less than I Torr. weighed 15.8 grams (93% yield). The solid melted at 207°-210° C. and ex-hibited satisfactory elemental analyses and spectral characteristics for the desired material, which is the compound of Formula VIII in the specification. Preparation of Copoly(N,N-Dimethylacrylamide:2-Vinyl-4,4-Dime- thylazlactone:N,N -Bis(2-Acrylamido-2-Methyl-Pro- pionyl)-1,2-Diaminoethane) (55:42.7:2.3) The two-step procedure of Example 1 was utilized except MBA was replaced by the above prepared cross-linking monomer (1.0 gram; 0.003 mole). A sample (15.1 grams) of the intermediate carboxylate-functional poly-mer was treated with acetic anhydride to yield, after washing and drying, 11.0 grams of the azlactone-func-tional polymer. EXAMPLE 3 This example teaches the reaction of a gel-type poly-mer and a relatively low molecular weight, in-trapolymer support-diffusible functional material. The example further teaches a procedure for quantitative determination of azlactone groups. The procedure is a variation of a quantitative analysis of isocyanates and isothiocyanates using n-butylamine (cf. S. Siggia, Quantitative Organic Analysis via Func-tional Groups , John Wiley Sons: New York, p. 558 (1963)). Generally, the procedure involves treatment of the azlactone-functional beads with standard triethyl-amine in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) to react with and determine the concentration of any uncyclized carboxyl groups. To another sample of beads, excess standard n-butylamine in DMF is added and shaken for 24 hours at room temperature. The excess concentra-tion of n-butylamine is then determined by potentiomet-ric titration with standard acid as an indirect measure of the concentration of azlactone groups. Using this method with the beads of EXAMPLE 2, three separate 22 TABLE I 5,336,742 21 determinations showed minimal, i.e., less than 0.3 mil-liequivalents/gram (meq/g) of resin, carboxyl content and an average azlactone content of 2.2 meq/g. Theo-retical azlactone content was 3.1 meq/g. Therefore, over 70% of the theoretical azlactone groups had formed and were accessible by the n-butylamine func-tional material. EXAMPLE 4 This example further teaches the reaction of a gel- 10 type polymer with a relatively small functional mate-rial, N-(3-aminopropyl)morpholine, but in an aqueous reaction solvent. Determination of reactable azlactone content is made by measuring the increase in % nitro-gen of the reacted beads. This procedure is more time 15 consuming than the quantitative analysis method out-lined in EXAMPLE 3, but comparison of the results serves as a check on the accuracy of the titration method. A gel-type polymer consisting of DMA:VDM:MBA 20 (53.8:41.7:4.5) [62.3:34.4:3.3] was prepared as in EX-AMPLE 1; the theoretical % nitrogen present in the beads should be 12.6%; experimentally observed using a Average Monomer wts. (g) Wt % particle [mole %] cross- diameter EXAMPLE DMA NaAMA MBA linker (micrometers) 5 24 24 2 4 67.5 [62.2:34.4:3.3] 6 23 23 4 8 42.2 [60.7:33.5:6.8] 7 21 21 8 16 32.4 [55.6:30.7:13.6] EXAMPLES 8-10 These examples teach the preparation of highly cross-linked polymers of the invention (PROCESS I). They furthermore teach utilization of a co-solvent to facilitate dissolution of the crosslinking monomer. The method of EXAMPLE 1 was utilized except the monomers and initiator were dissolved in water (75 grams) and DMF (30 grams). The azlactone content was determined utilizing the titration procedure of EX-AMPLE 3, and is shown in TABLE II, below. TABLE II Average Monomer wts. (g) particle Azlactone content [mole %1 diameter (meg/g) EX. DMA NaAMA MBA (micrometers) theoretical measured 8 34.02 4.48 12.5 26.0 0.5 0.29 [76.4:5.5:18.0] 9 30.55 8.95 12.5 20.5 1.0 0.52 [70.1:11.4:18.4] 10 27.08 13.42 12.5 25.0 1.5 1.10 [63.6:17.4:18.9] Kjeldahl method was 12.1%. The azlactone-functional beads (1.44 grams; contain-ing approximately 0.004 mole of azlactone groups), 40 N-(3-aminopropyl)morpholine (0.80 gram; 0.0055 mole), and 15 mL of a standard aqueous pH 9 buffer solution were placed in a 100 mL, round bottomed flask and stirred at room temperature. After four hours the beads were filtered, washed repeatedly with deionized 45 water, and dried at 60° C. and less than 1 Torr. The resulting adduct possessed a nitrogen content of 13.8%. Theoretically, the increase in nitrogen should have been 17.4%. The experimentally observed increase of 12.3% again indicates that 70% of the azlactone groups had 50 formed and reacted. This result is in excellent agree-ment with the titration procedure result of EXAMPLE 3. Furthermore, the result indicates that measurable hydrolysis in the aqueous pH 9 buffer solution did not occur and that virtually quantitative attaching reactions 55 can take place in aqueous media at an elevated pH. EXAMPLES 5-7 These examples illustrate how polymer bead size can be controlled by the level of crosslinking monomer 60 (PROCESS I). The procedure of Step 1 of EXAMPLE 1 was uti-lized to prepare the carboxylate-functional beads of the following examples as shown in TABLE I, below. Av-erage particle diameters were determined using an opti- 65 cal microscope equipped with a Zeiss IBAS TM Image Analyzer. It is apparent that as the level of crosslinker increases the particle diameter decreases. The polymer beads prepared in Examples 8 to 10 can be reacted with a functional material to provide a chro-matographic support, a complexing agent, a polymeric reagent, or a catalyst. EXAMPLE 11 This example teaches the preparation of a polymer with N-methacryloylmethylalanine sodium salt (NaMMA) instead of NaAMA (PROCESS I). The resulting azlactone-functional bead of Formula V was formed with R1-CH3. The procedure of EXAMPLE 9 was utilized except that NaMMA (9.65 grams) was substituted for the NaAMA. The resulting azlactone-functional beads which were formed after treatment with acetic anhy-dride had an average particle diameter of 22.4 microme-ters and an azlactone functionality of 0.68 meq/g. EXAMPLE 12 This example teaches the preparation of a polymer with N-vinylpyrrolidone as the water soluble monomer component (PROCESS I). The procedure and mono-mer charges of EXAMPLE 9 were utilized except the DMA was replaced by N-vinylpyrrolidone. The aver-age particle diameter of the beads resulting from Step 1 was 19.3 micrometers. Cyclization afforded azlactone-functional beads which possessed a strong azlactone carbonyl absorption band at about 1820 cm-1 in the infrared. 5,336,742 This example teaches the synthesis of a six-membered ring azlactone (2-oxazin-6-one) functional polymer bead (PROCESS I). 5 The procedure of EXAMPLE 9 was utilized except 3-acrylamido-3-methylbutyric acid sodium salt (9.65 grams) was utilized instead of NaAMA. After cycliza-tion the 2-oxazin-6-one functional beads possessed an average diameter of 28.5 micrometers and a functional 10 level of 0.16 meq/g. EXAMPLE 14 This example teaches the reaction of an azlactone-functional polymer bead with a protein functional mate- 15 rial. Preparation of Radiolabeled Protein A Protein A (2.5 mg) (from Staphylococcus aureus) (Genzyme Corp., Boston, Mass.) was dissolved in 10 20 mM potassium phosphate buffer (pH 7.0; 0.6 mL) and two Iodo-beads TM (an insoluble form of chloramine T; Pierce Chemical Co., Rockford, Ill.) were added to catalyze the addition of iodine to tyrosine residues. The reaction was initiated by the addition of 0.1 milli Curies 25 (mCi) of NaI (carrier-free 125I, New England Nuclear Co., N. Billerica, Mass.). The reaction was incubated at 20° C. for 30 minutes with vigorous manual shaking at five minute intervals. Protein A (both iodinated and unmodified forms) was separated from NaI by elution 30 through a Pharmacia PD-10 size exclusion column in the same phosphate buffer. The fractions which con-tained protein were combined, aliquotted, and frozen at — 15° C. until used. Specific radioactivity on day 0 was 154,000 counts per minute (cpm)/µg. All subsequent 35 calculations were corrected for the radioactive half-life of 125I of 60 days. Radioactive Protein A was not used beyond six weeks after iodination. Reaction of the Radiolabeled Protein A with an 40 Azlactone-Functional Bead The azlactone-functional polymer utilized was that prepared in EXAMPLE 5. The polymer beads (0.010 gram) were placed in a centrifuge tube and were cov-ered with a solution consisting of the labeled Protein A 45 preparation above (100 y.L) and 400 µL of a phosphate buffer solution (pH 7.5). The mixture was shaken gently at room temperature for 90 minutes. The tube was cen-trifuged, and the original supernatant and five succes-sive washes (I mL of pH 7.5 buffer) were collected and 50 their 125I content determined using a Packard Auto-Gamma Scintillation Spectrometer Model 5230. The original supernatant exhibited 42,415 cpm (above back-ground); first wash: 6722; second wash: 836; third wash: 202; fourth wash: 48; and fifth wash: 18 cpm. Ethanol- 55 amine (400 microliters of 0.5M in pH 7.5 phosphate buffer) was added and shaken with the beads for 90 minutes to react with all the remaining azlactone resi-dues. Finally, after an additional four washes with buffer solution the beads and the reaction vessel were 60 counted and exhibited 7002 and 1865 cpm, respectively. This correlates to a level of 2.54 micrograms of Protein A/10 mg of beads. A CONTROL experiment was conducted in the same manner except the order of addition of Protein A 65 and ethanolamine was reversed. The CONTROL ex-hibited a level of 0.14 microgram of Protein A/10 mg of beads. 24 In a similar fashion, the effects of the catalyst DBU were examined, with the DBU (25 microliters) being added to the initial Protein A buffer solution. The result was a level of 3.90 micrograms of Protein A/10 mg of beads. EXAMPLE 15 This example illustrates that the Protein A is not just adsorbed or adhering to the beads in some fashion but is actually covalently bound to the polymer beads. The amount of covalently bound protein may be estimated by determining the amount of protein resistant to so-dium dodecylsulfate (SDS) treatment. SDS denatures protein so that only those molecules which are cova-lently bound will remain attached to the beads. In this experiment, the polymer beads (10 mg) of EXAMPLE 14 (having 3.90 micrograms Protein A/10 mg of beads) were incubated with 1% sodium dodecyl-sulfate (SDS) (500 microliters) at 37° C. for two hours, followed by centrifugation, and five buffer (550 microli-ters; pH 7.5) washes. Analysis of the radioactivity of the beads revealed that 73% of the protein remained at-tached to the beads. EXAMPLE 16 This example illustrates that the Protein A attached to the polymer beads remains active and is not dena-tured in the attaching process. Biologically active Protein A can be assayed by de-termining the amount of antibody which it can bind. Antibody (IgG) conjugated with an enzyme marker, alkaline phosphatase was purchased from Cooper Bio-medical (Malvern, Pa.). In this experiment, 1.0 mg of the polymer beads of EXAMPLE 5 were reacted with unlabeled Protein A and ethanolamine as described in EXAMPLE 14. The beads were reacted with the enzyme-antibody conju-gate for 2 hours. After centrifugation and washing steps, Protein A and CONTROL beads were resus-pended in the alkaline phosphatase assay solution (0. 1M sodium glycinate, 1.0 mM ZnCl2, 1.0 mM CaC12, 6.0 mM p-nitrophenyl phosphate, pH 10.4) and rocked continuously to promote mixing. Every 10 min the absorbance of the supernatant solution was determined at 405 nm. The absorbance of the TEST beads increased linearly at 5 to 15 times the CONTROL rate, depending on the amount of immobilized Protein A. This showed that the protein remained active. EXAMPLE 17 This example teaches that the attaching reaction with a protein in aqueous media is rapid. The beads of Example 6 were reacted with radiola-beled Protein A as described in Example 14 except that the quenching and washing steps were initiated at vari-ous times from 5-180 min. The zero time was pre-pared by addition of the quencher ethanolamine first. The reaction was performed in pH 8.5, 20 mM sodium pyrophosphate buffer with DBU. It was observed that at 5 minutes 1.34 micrograms of Protein A/10 mg of beads were bound. This was 80% by weight of the amount bound at 180 minutes. EXAMPLE 18 This example teaches that a substantially greater con-centration of multifunctional monomers is required to achieve a low degree of swelling with hydrophilic poly-mer beads than with typical hydrophobic macroporous 23 EXAMPLE 13 5,336,742 25 polymer beads which are essentially non-swelling with difunctional monomer concentrations of greater than 20 weight percent. Employing the procedure of Example I with the modification of using 60 mL of DMF cosolvent in step 5 1, two bead formulations were prepared: DMA:-PIP:VDM (42:16:42) [52.5:10.1:37.4] and MBA:-PIP:VDM (42:16:42) [41.6:12.5:46.0], in which PIP represents N,N -bis(acryloyl)piperazine prepared by the method of M. C. Tanzi, et al., Biomaterials, 5, 357 10 (1984). In the first set of beads the difunctional mono-mer molar concentration was 10.1% and in the second set 54%. In graduated cylinders, 0.5 mL (dry volume) of the beads of each set were covered with the pH 7.5 buffer solution. Within 20 minutes, the beads containing 15 10.1% difunctional monomer had swelled to 3 mL or six times its dry volume, whereas the 54% crosslinked beads had swelled to 1 mL or only twice its dry volume. Because of their low degree of swelling these beads are especially useful for the preparation of chromato- 20 graphic supports. EXAMPLE 19 This example teaches that exceptionally high binding capacities can be achieved with highly crosslinked, 25 azlactone-functional beads and, further, that a surpris-ingly non-linear relationship exists between capacity and azlactone content (i.e., in certain ranges, a modest increase in reactive group functionality results in an enormous increase in binding capacity). 30 Two bead formulations were prepared as in Example 18 consisting of MBA:PIP:VDM:DMA (42:16:10:32) [36.4:10.9:9.6:43.1] and MBA:PIP:VDM:DMA (42:16:30:12) [39.4:11.8:31.2:17.5]. These preparations along with the MBA:PIP:VDM (42:16:42) 35 [41.6:12.5:46.0] beads of Example 18 contain relatively high levels, i.e., 47-54%, of difunctional monomers. The three azlactone-functional beads were challenged with radiolabeled Protein A (125 mg/g of beads). Simi-larly treated was a commercial, oxirane-functional bead `0 preparation, Eupergit-C TM (available from Rohm Pharma, Weiterstadt, West Germany). (Eupergit-C is believed to be a water swellable, crosslinked polymer bead protected by U.S. Pat. No. 4,070,348.) After wash-ing as in Example 14, the levels of bound Protein A 45 were observed with the various bead preparations as shown in TABLE III, below. TABLE III [Reactive Group] Bound Protein As 50 Bead Sample (meq/g) (mg/g) MBA:PIP:VDM:DMA 0.72 3.6 (42:16:10:32) [36.4:10.9:9.6:43.1] MBA:PIP:VDM:DMA 2.15 11.3 (42:16:30:12) 55 [39.4:11.8:31.2:17.5] MBA:PIP:VDM 3.02 54.4 (42:16:42) [41.6:12.5:46.0] EUPERGIT-C 0.8-1.0•• 9.6 All bound Protein A amounts were greater than 95% SDS resistant. 60 According to information provided by the vendor. It was surprising to note that an increase of 40% in reactive group functionality from the 30 wt % VDM to the 42 wt % VDM was accompanied by an enormous 65 380% increase in weight of bound protein. The water swellable Eupergit-C product even when projected at equivalent reactive group concentration would bind 26 only from 30-36 mg of Protein A per gram of polymer bead. EXAMPLE 20 This example teaches that the highly crosslinked, azlactone-functional beads can bind considerably more protein than oxirane beads. MBA:PIP:VDM (42:16:42) [41.6:12.5:46.0] beads of Example 18 and Eupergit-C TM beads were reacted with 20-500 mg of radiolabeled Protein A per gram of bead. After washing as described in Example 14, the amounts of bound protein were determined. These re-sults were plotted by a method originally described by Klotz (I. M. Klotz, in The Proteins , eds. H. Neurath and K. Bailey, Academic Press, Vol. 2, p. 727, 1958) in which the inverse of the Protein A bound is plotted versus the inverse of the Protein A concentration. This method is useful for determining the maximum capacity of a binding group for a ligand by extrapolation to infi-nite ligand concentration. The maximum binding capac-ity of Eupergit-C TM for Protein A was 13.5 mg/gram of bead, much lower than the 245 mg/gram maximum binding capacity of VDM-containing bead. Addition-ally, SDS treatment as described in Example 15 reveals that 87% of the Eupergit-C TM Protein A was cova-lently attached compared with 96% of the VDM Pro-tein A. EXAMPLE 21 This example teaches that azlactone-functional beads can perform well as a stationary phase in high perfor-mance (pressure) liquid chromatography (HPLC). Eupergit-C TM and MBA:PIP:VDM (42:16:42) [41.6:12.5:46.0] of Example 18 were each packed into identical 3 X 50 mm glass HPLC columns and subjected to a regimen of increasing flow rates using a Pharmacia FPLC liquid chromatography pumping system. At a flow rate of 1 mL/min the back pressures observed were 1.0 megapascal (MPa) (Eupergit-C TM) and 0.8 MPa (azlactone), and at 2.5 mL/min the pressures were 1.6 and 1.3 MPa, respectively. Neither column bed appeared compressed during the lengthy testing period. EXAMPLE 22 This example teaches that a column of Protein A immobilized onto azlactone-functional beads can func-tion as an affinity column for Immunoglobulin G (IgG) in a high flow system such as might be useful in treat-ment of a cancer patient. Protein A was immobilized onto the MBA:PIP:VDM (42:16:42) [41.6:12.5:46.0] beads of Example 18 as de-scribed in Example 13, and a 3 X 37 mm HPLC column was prepared and equilibrated at pH 7.5 in 25 mM so-dium phosphate buffer. Human blood serum (0.5 mL), diluted 10-fold with buffer, was injected into the col-umn at 0.5 mL/min (2 column volumes/min). After 8 column volumes the column was washed with I.OM NaCl in the phosphate buffer to remove any non-specifically bound protein. Finally, the column was eluted with 1.OM sodium glycinate buffer, pH 3.0, to remove the bound IgG. 200 ,tg of IgG eluted from the column which yields a useful capacity of 0.6 moles of IgG bound per mole of Protein A immobilized to azlac-tone-functional beads. EXAMPLE 23 This example teaches the preparation of a highly crosslinked bead polymer of the invention by the re- 27 5,336,742 28 verse phase suspension polymerization method using EXAMPLES 24C, 24D, AND 24E monomeric 2-vinyl-4,4-dimethylazlactone instead of its Reverse phase suspension polymerizations were con- precursor (PROCESS II). ducted by the procedure of Example 24A except that Preparation of the polymeric stabilizer used was (24C) 90:10 copoly(i- Copoly(Methylenebisacrylamide:2-Vinyl-4,4-dime- 5 sooctylacrylate: acrylic acid, sodium salt), (24D) (90:10) thylazlactone) (58:42) [55.5:44.5] copoly(isooctylacrylate: acrylic acid), and (24E) (91.8:8.2) copoly(isooctylacrylate: N-acryloyl- a- A 3-liter creased, round bottomed flask equipped aminoisobutyramide). with a mechanical stirrer (stirring rate 300 rpm), nitro- In all cases, IR analysis of the beads obtained indi- gen inlet, thermometer, and condenser was charged 10 cated that no hydrolysis of the azlactone ring had oc- with heptane (1043 mL) and carbon tetrachloride (565 curred during polymerization. mL). This solution was stirred and sparged with nitro-gen for 15 minutes. A separate solution was prepared as follows: Methylenebisacrylamide (29 grams, 0.188 mole) was dissolved in dimethylformamide (160 mL); 15 after solution was achieved, water (160 mL) was added and the resulting solution sparged with nitrogen for 15 minutes. Sorbitan sesquioleate (3 mL) was added and sparging continued for an additional 5 minutes. At this point, ammonium persulfate (1 gram) was added and 20 sparging continued for 1 minute more. The solution was then quickly added to the organic suspending medium. Immediately following this addition, VDM (21 grams, 0.151 mole) was added and the, whole mixture was sparged for an additional 5 minutes. N,N,N ,N -tet- 25 ramethyl-1,2-diaminoethane (2 mL) was added and the reaction temperature rose fairly rapidly from 22 to 29 degrees C. The reaction mixture was stirred for a total of 4 hours from the time of the diamine addition, then filtered using a D (greater than 21 micrometers) sin- 30 tered glass funnel. The filter cake was washed on the filter with acetone (2 X 500 mL), then dried at 60 de-grees C. and less than 1 torr for 24 hours. IR analysis indicated a strong azlactone carbonyl absorption. EXAMPLE 24A 35 A reverse phase suspension polymerization (PRO-CESS II) was conducted by a procedure similar to that of Example 23 except that a polymeric stabilizer was employed instead of the sorbitan sesquioleate. The poly- 40 meric stabilizer was prepared as follows: A solution of copoly(isooctylacrylate:VDM) (95:5) (31.68 grams of a 38.7% solids solution in ethyl acetate) was diluted with acetone (20.54 grams). To this solution was added cho-line salicylate (1.06 grams, 0.0044 mole) and 1,8- 45 diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene (DBU) (0.1 gram) and the resultant mixture was heated at 55 degrees C. for 15 hours. IR anaylsis indicated the formation of the desired reaction product. In the preparation of the bead polymer, 6.0 grams of 50 the above polymeric stabilizer solution was utilized. After conducting the polymerization as described in Example 23, isolating and drying the bead polymer, IR analysis indicated that azlactone groups had all been hydrolyzed. Cyclization was accomplished using acetic 55 anhydride as in Step 2 of Example 1. The beads were then filtered, washed with ethyl acetate (2 X 500 mL) and diethyl ether (1 X 500 mL), then dried under pump vacuum ( 1 torr) for 24 hours at 65 degrees C. EXAMPLE 24B 60 A reverse phase suspension polymerization was con-ducted by a procedure similar to that of Example 24A except that the polymeric stabilizer used was copoly(i-sooctylacrylate:N-acryloylmethylalanine, sodium salt) 65 (90.5:9.5). IR analysis of the beads obtained indicated that no hydrolysis of the azlactone ring had occurred during the polymerization. EXAMPLE 25A The following examples teach preparation of azlac-tone-functional bead polymers by dispersion polymeri-zation in alcoholic media (PROCESS III). Preparation of Copoly(2-Vinyl-4,4-dimethylazlactone: Ethyleneglycol Dimethylacrylate) (42:58) A 1-liter creased, round bottomed flask equipped as in Example 23 was charged with t-butyl alcohol (400 mL), polyvinylpyrrolidone (7.0 grams) and Aliquat TM 336 (2.0 grams) (avaiable from Henkel Corp., Kanka-kee, Ill.). VDM (21 grams), ethyleneglycol dimethacry-late (EGDMA, 29 grams), and azobis(isobutyronitrile) (AIBN) (0.5 gram) were mixed, and the resultant solu-tion added to the reaction vessel. Nitrogen gas was bubbled through the stirred reaction mixture for ten minutes, then the flask was immersed in an oil bath preequilibrated to 70 degrees C. Stirring and heating was continued for 2.5 hours, then the mixture was al-lowed to cool and was filtered. The filter cake was washed two times with acetone and dried at 50 degrees C. in a circulating air oven to give 43 grams of colorless polymer beads. IR analysis showed the azlactone ring to be intact, and that no apparent reaction with the alcohol solvent had taken place. Additional examples of polymer beads were prepared by procedures similar to those described in this example except that different dispersing solvents, different mon-omer ratios, or different comonomers, were utilized. Beads were separately prepared using isopropanol, eth-anol, and methanol as the dispersing solvent and meth-ylmethacrylate, hydroxyethyl methacrylate, and 2-iso-propenyl-4,4-dimethylazlactone were used as mono-mers. In all cases, IR analysis indicated that the azlac-tone ring was intact in the product beads. Table IV shows the various formulations prepared by this method. TABLE IV Polymer Beads Prepared By Dispersion Polymerization Monomer Composition (wt %) Example VDM EGDMA Other Solvent 25A 48 52 — t-butanol 25B 100 — — i-propanol 25C 10 90 — i-propanol 25D 20 80 — i-propanol 25E 30 70 — i-propanol 25F 60 40 — i-propanol 25G 80 20 — i-propanol 25H 90 10 — i-propanol 25I 42 20 38 (MMA)a i-propanol 25J 40 50 10 (HEMA)b i-propanol 25K 100 (IDM)c — — i-propanol a = methyl methacrylate. b = 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate c = 2-isopropenyl4,4dimethylazlactone 29 5,336,742 30 EXAMPLE 26 Polymeric beads from the previous preparations were evaluated for their ability to bind Protein A using la-beled protein. Radioiodinated Protein A (Example 14) 5 was diluted with unlabeled Protein A to give a target specific radioactivity of 2000 cpm/µg of protein dis-solved in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) 25 mM so-dium phosphate, 150 mM NaCl buffer, pH 7.5, with a final protein concentration of 250 µg/mL. In triplicate 10 samples 200 µL of Protein A solution was added to 10 mg of beads and allowed to react at room temperature for one hour. The reaction was terminated by removal of the protein solution and addition of 500 µL of 3.OM ethanolamine, pH 9.0, for quenching the unreacted 15 azlactone sites. After 30 minutes, the beads were washed three times with 500 pL of PBS, transferred to clean test tubes, and monitored for bound radioactive protein as in EXAMPLE 14. The following day, the beads were incubated with 500 µL of 1% SDS (sodium 20 dodecylsulfate) in PBS for 4 hours at 37 degrees C. to remove non-covalently bound protein. After incuba-tion, the beads were rinsed three times with 500 p.L SDS, and the remaining radioactivity was determined. The data from those experiments is shown in TABLE 25 V, below. TABLE V Properties of Azlactone Polymeric Beads Protein A SDS Bead binding resistance 30 (Example #) (mg/g) (%) 23 3.2 81 24A 2.8 90 25A 1.1 96 25E 4.1 96 35 The data of TABLE V show that beads prepared by PROCESSES II and III exhibited high protein binding capacities similar to those obtained in PROCESS I. EXAMPLE 27 40 The surface area and pore size of azlactone polymer beads prepared by the methods of Examples 18, 23, and 25A were measured by standard methods, BET-method (isothermal nitrogen absorption) and mercury poro- 45 simetry, respectively. Reactive groups were determined by modifying the method of Example 3 such that the beads were reacted in 0.1M NaOH overnight before titration with standard acid solution. The results, shown in Table VI, indicate that beads prepared by the meth- 50 ods of Examples 18 and 23 produce materials which were significantly more porous than Eupergit-C (values from vendor s information) while the beads produced by the method of Example 25A were nearly nonporous. 55 TABLE VI Properties of Polymeric Beads Surface Reactive Reactive area Ave. Pore groups density Bead (m2/g) size (A) (meq/g) (,ueq/m2) Ex. 18 275 650 3.02 11 Ex. 23 200 550 2.79 14 Ex. 25A 2.85 25000 (2.5 µm) 0.19 67 Euper- 183 350 0.8-1.0 5.5 git-C The measured average pore size of the porous azlac-tone beads of Example 18 and 23 were somewhat larger than Eupergit-C. The large measured pore size (2.5 micrometers) of the azlactone beads of Example 25A is believed to represent the interstitial volume between beads and indicates a lack of a porous structure. The number of reactive groups available on porous azlac-tone beads was higher than that available on Eupergit-C which could be of great utility when used for chromato-graphic purposes. When compared as reactive groups per unit area, the nonporous azlactone beads and porous beads were clearly superior to Eupergit-C. EXAMPLE 28 This example demonstrates the preparation of azlac-tone-functional polymers which have enhanced coating properties for organic and inorganic substrates (PRO-CESS IV). A homopolymer of VDM was prepared by free radi-cal polymerization of the monomer using 2,2 -azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) as initiator at 30% solids in methyl ethyl ketone (MEK). Samples of this polymer solution were reacted with methanol using DBU (2-5 mole % based on methanol charged) as catalyst. The amount of methanol used was chosen so as to leave a certain fraction of the azlactone rings of the polymer intact. The homopolymer and five modified polymers with 100, 80, 60, 40, 20, and 0 molar % remaining were prepared. These will be referred to as VDM-100, VDM-80, VDM-60, VDM-40, VDM-20, and VDM-0, respectively, in succeeding examples. Similarly ethylamine was reacted with a fraction of the homopolymer solution to produce a 60% ethylamide/40% azlactone polymer (VDM-60N). EXAMPLE 29 This example shows the superior coating properties of modified poly VDM (PROCESS IV). Glass microscope slides (2.5x7.6 cm); Sur-giPath TM) were dipped three times in a 10% solution of VDM-60 or VDM-100 (Example 28) in ethyl acetate and allowed to air dry for one hour at room tempera-ture (PROCESS IV). The slides were then immersed in distilled water for 5 to 15 minutes and observed for remaining VDM coating. After rinsing, slides coated with VDM-60 polymer showed evidence of the undis-turbed VDM polymer coating by the appearance of a faint opalescent sheen. A polymer film was observed to float off the surface of those slides coated with VDM-100. This indicates that the partially methanol reacted azlactone polymer binds substantially better to a glass surface than the unreacted polymer. Similarly glass slides were dip coated in 10% solutions of VDM-100 and VDM-60N and air dried. Pairs of slides were im-mersed for 10 and 40 minutes in 0.1M HCl solution. The VDM-100 coating bubbled and lifted in each case while the VDM-60N coating remained attached and un-changed by the treatment. To confirm these qualitative observations, sections of plain glass microhematocrit capillary tubing (American Scientific Products, McGaw Park, Ill.) were coated with VDM-60 (Example 28) and allowed to air dry (1.2mm internal diameter, 6 mm length; 2 sections per assay 0.90 cm2 total surface area). These samples (in triplicate) were incubated with radioiodinated Protein A as previously described (Example 26). The results (see Table VII, below) show that azlactone-functional polymer coating of the glass increased both the amount of covalently bound protein (17-fold greater than non- 60 65 32 EXAMPLE 31 5,336,742 31 treated glass) and the % SDS resistance (4.5-fold in-crease). In addition, incubation in the aqueous PBS solution at room temperature for 16 hours resulted in no significant loss of bound protein, indicating minimal dissolution of the azlactone-functional polymer coating 5 by aqueous solution over this extended time interval. TABLE VII The Binding of Protein A to VDM-60 Coated Glass Covalently SDS 10 bound protein resistance Treatment (ng/cm2) (%) none 11 16 solvent 26 23 VDM-60 194 72 15 EXAMPLE 30 This example illustrates the coating of silica gel with azlactone-functional polymer and the ability of the 20 coated product to covalently bind protein (PROCESS IV). Chromatographic grade silica beads (Silicar CC-4 TM, Mallinkrodt Chemical, St. Louis, Mo.) were 25 dried in an oven at 135 degrees C., 1 torr, for 24 hours. A sample of this silica gel (9.81 g) was mixed with a 30% solids solution of VDM-100 polymer from Example 28 in MEK (1.63 g). This mixture was covered with more MEK (50 mL) and allowed to stand at room 30 temperature for 3 hours with occasional swirling. The solvent was then removed under reduced pressure and the coated silica gel, now containing 5% by weight azlactone polymer, was dried at 1 torr at room tem-perature overnight. Similarly VDM-80, VDM-60, 35 VDM-40, VDM-20, and VDM-0 were coated onto silica gel. Approximately 10 mg of each coated silica gel and untreated silica gel were exposed to labeled Protein A and evaluated for protein binding as in Example 26. The results of radioactivity monitoring of the protein-treated beads and subsequent SDS treatment are shown below in TABLE VIII. TABLE VIII The Binding of Protein A to 45 Azlactone-Functional Polymer-Coated Silica Beads Bound SDS Protein A Resistance Bead Type (mg/g) (%) Untreated 0.15 42 50 Silica VDM-0 0.14 41 VDM-20 1.97 94 VDM-40 2.44 97 VDM-60 2.60 98 VDM-80 2.64 98 55 VDM-100 2.50 97 The data of TABLE VIII show coating the beads with polymer containing 20% residual azlactone 60 (VDM-20) resulted in a 14-fold increase in the amount of protein bound, with SDS resistance more than dou-bling. Solutions of polymer containing 40% azlactone functionality or higher yielded protein binding at a 17-fold increase over the uncoated silica. The SDS 65 resistance increased to 98% as a result of the azlactone-functional polymer coating on this inorganic support material. This example illustrates the ability of partially reac-tion azlactone polymer to coat zirconium oxide ceramic beads (PROCESS IV). Zirconium oxide ceramic beads (12.65 g) prepared as described in M. P. Righey, Ph.D. Thesis, The Devel-opment of Porous Zirconia as a Support for Reverse Phase High Performance Liquid Chromatography , University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn. (1988) were coated as in Example 30 with VDM-60 to a final 5 weight % loading. Coated and uncoated beads were evaluated for protein binding using radioiodinated Pro-tein A. Approximately 20 mg of each bead type (in triplicate) were incubated with 400 µ.L of a dilute solution of labeled Protein A (specific radioactivity at 2000 cpm/.tg; 250 µg protein/mL) for one hour, at which time 800 p.L of 3.OM ethanolamine, pH 9.0, was added to the reaction mixture. After centrifugation and re-moval of the supernatant, an additional 800 µL of quenching amine was incubated with the beads for 30 minutes. This quench was followed by 3 X 800 µL rinses with PBS. The beads were then monitored for radioac-tivity (10 minutes per tube), and were subjected to 1% SDS treatment on the following day (see Example 26). Azlactone-functional polymer coating of the beads resulted in a 24-fold increase in protein bound to the ceramic material, 0.72 µg protein per mg beads versus 0.03 µg per mg for uncoated beads . In addition, the bound protein was greater than 99% resistant to SDS treatment, indicating covalent bond linkage of the pro-tein to the azlactone-functional polymer-coated zirco-nium oxide support. EXAMPLE 32 This example illustrates the preparation of a nylon membrane coated with polyazlactone and the binding of protein to it (PROCESS IV). Small disks of nylon filtration membrane (Filter-Pure TM Nylon-66, 0.2 .tm; Pierce, Rockford, Ill.) were cut (4 diameter; total surface area of 0.61 cm2/disk) and immersed in a 1% solution of VDM-60 (Example 28) in ethyl acetate for one hour at room temperature, followed by air drying. Protein A binding was evalu-ated by the procedure of Example 26 with exception that polyazlactone-coated disk and untreated disks (in triplicate) were treated with 250 .tL of labeled Protein A solution and allowed to react at room temperature for one hour, with the initial 30-minute incubation per-formed under vacuum to ensure complete wetting of the membrane. The reaction was terminated by removal of the protein solution and addition of 500 µL of 3.OM ethanolamine, pH 9.0, for quenching the unreacted azlactone sites as before. The VDM-60 treated nylon membrane disks showed a 60% increase in covalently bound protein over the untreated disks (757 ng Protein A/cm2 vs. 472 ng/cm2), with a significant six-fold increase in the % SDS resis-tance (71% compared to 11%). These results indicate that protein binding to this membrane could be in-creased by a simple treatment with the azlactone-func-tional polymer. EXAMPLE 33 This example demonstrates the coating of polyethyl-ene particles with partially reacted azlactone polymer 5,336,742 33 and the ability of the coated organic particle to bind protein (PROCESS IV). High density porous polyethylene particles (prepared as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,539,256) were cryogeni-cally ground according to the procedure disclosed in 5 Australian Patent No. 551,446 and then coated with a 5% loading of VDM-60 by a procedure similar to that of Example 30. Untreated and VDM-60 treated parti-cles were evaluated for Protein A binding as previously outlined (Example 26), using 10 mg of particles per 10 tube, 200 .tL of Protein A solution, and 500 µL of quenching reagent, PBS, and SDS solution. Radioactive determinations indicated a 65% increase in covalently bound protein on the VDM-60 treated particles compared to the untreated polyethylene. SDS 15 resistance increased from 24% to 65%, representing a two- to three-fold increase in the relative amounts of covalent protein binding. EXAMPLE 34 This example shows that graft polymers of VDM and 20 polystyrene can be used to coat glass beads (Coming Glass Works, Corning, N.Y.) (PROCESS IV). Controlled pore glass (CPG) beads were treated as in Example 30 with sufficient 1% solution in toluene of a 25 VDM-grafted polystyrene (2% VDM) to result in a 1% loading of the CPG after evaporation. As a control, ungrafted polystrene was also coated onto CPG by a similar procedure. The coated CPGs were then tested for Protein A binding in comparison with the untreated 30 glass material, as previously outlined in Example 26, using 10 mg of support material per tube. Determination of covalently bound radioactive pro-tein indicated a nine-fold increase of total protein bind-ing to the polystyrene-coated beads over the uncoated 35 beads, with an additional three-fold increase on the VDM-grafted polystyrene coated material. SDS results showed a doubling of percent resistance of the bound protein on the VDM-grafted polystyrene compared with the plain polystyrene-coated beads. These data indicate a significant increase in covalent protein bind-ing as a direct result of the VDM-grafted polymer coated on the glass beads. EXAMPLE 35 Derivatization of VDM Copolymer Beads and 45 Demonstration of Hydrophobic Interaction Properties VDM copolymer beads from Example 18 were derivatized for 96 hours at room temperature with 0.5M 50 phenethylamine (Aldrich Chem. Co., Milwaukee, Wis.) in 25 mM phosphate buffer, pH 7.5. The beads were washed exhaustively with phosphate buffer, and packed manually into a 0.35 mL Omni TM glass column (3 mm.X5 cm; Rainin Instrument Co., Woburn, Mass.). 55 The column was equilibrated on the FPLC system (Pharmacia Inc., Piscataway, N.J.) with 1.7M ammo-nium sulfate in 50 mM phosphate buffer, pH 6.8. Oval-bumin (5 mg/mL; Sigma Chem. Co., St. Louis, Mo.) dissolved in the ammonium sulfate buffer was loaded 60 onto the column. At a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min, a 15 mL gradient (1.7M ammonium sulfate to O.OM in phosphate buffer) was performed to evaluate elution of the protein by hydrophobic interaction. In this example, 0.53 mg of the protein was eluted late in the gradient at 10.45 mL 65 elution volume (1.16M ammonium sulfate), with the remaining protein recovered in the void volume. This result is in contrast to a control column using the identi- 34 cal solvent system, but packed with VDM beads that had been hydrolyzed in phosphate buffer. The control showed no interaction with the ovalbumin, i.e., all of the protein passing unretarded through the hydrolyzed copolymer column at the void volume. Bovine serum albumin (BSA; Sigma) at 25 mg/mL in ammonium sulfate buffer was injected onto the column and eluted by the same gradient as above, but at a flow rate of 0.3 mL/min. This high concentration (5 mg injection) of protein resulted in 32% of the total protein being eluted at 10.53 mL (1.17M salt), and the rest re-covered in the void volume. Upon reinjection, a frac-tion of the unbound protein from the void volume bound to the column and eluted at 10.49 mL, suggesting that the initial injection had over-loaded the column. These data suggest that as the salt concentration is re-duced, the proteins elute from the matrix based on their hydrophobicity. This demonstration indicates the po-tential application of the VDM copolymer in hydro-phobic interaction chromatography. EXAMPLE 36 Demonstration of Ion Exchange Properties VDM copolymer beads from Example 18 were derivatized with 0.7M taurine (Aldrich Chem., Milwau-kee, Wis.) in 25 mM phosphate buffer, pH 7.5, for 72 hours at room temperature. The excess reagent was rinsed from the beads with buffer before packing in a 0.35 mL Omni TM glass column (3 mm X 5 cm). The column was equilibrated with 50 mM acetic acid, pH 5.0. BSA was dissolved in the equilibration buffer, and 0.8 mg was injected onto the column. After loading the protein in 5 mL of equilibration buffer at a flow rate of 0.5 mL/min, a 25 mL salt gradient from 0 to 2M NaCl (in 50 mM acetate, pH 5.0) was applied for ion exchange elution. As detected by UV absorbance readings at 280 nm, 0.54 mg of the BSA eluted from the column at an elution volume of 8.8 mL. The remaining protein was recovered in the void volume. The above protocol was performed with bovine IgG (Sigma) as the experimental protein to evaluate differ-ences in elution between two proteins. After loading 0.68 mg IgG, approximately 0.52 mg (64%) was eluted at 8.4 mL, with the remaining IgG recovered in the void volume. These results correlate with previous experiments using commercial ion exchange matrices, in which IgG eluted slightly before BSA on a Mono S column (Pharmacia Co., Piscataway, N.J.). A mixture of the above two proteins was resolved using the taurine-azlactone column when it was injected onto the column and eluted at 0.2 mL/min according to the following multiple gradient: a 30 mL gradient from 0 to 0.30M NaCl, followed by a 15 mL gradient to 1.OM NaCl, and final cleansing of bound protein with 2M NaCI. The proteins eluted in two main peaks at 17.8 mL (0.13M NaCl) and at 21.5 mL (0.16M NaCl). These elution volumes vary from the previous examples, due to the change in flow rate. EXAMPLE 37 Demonstration of Anion Exchange Properties of Azalactone Beads VDM polymer beads from Example 18 were reacted with an excess of 4-dimethylamino-l-butylamine in ace-tone for 12 hours at reflux. Following filtration and washing with acetone to remove unreacted aniline, the 35 5,336,742 36 beads were dried under vacuum at 60 degrees C. The beads were then packed into a 2.0 mL glass column, 5 mm X 10 cm (Pharmacia Fine Chemicals, Uppsalla, Sweden), and equilibrated with 20 mM tris(hydroxyme-thyl)aminomethane (Tris), pH 8.0. BSA and bovine IgG 5 were injected onto the column and eluted with a 20 mL gradient from 0 to 2M NaCl, 20 mM Tris, pH 8.0. The retention volumes for the proteins were 17.0 and 21.7, respectively, with a void volume of 4.1 mL. This dem-onstrates the use of cationic derivative of the VDM 10 polymer beads for anion exchange separations. EXAMPLE 38 Demonstration of Size Exclusion Properties 15 VDM polymer beads from Example 18 were hydro-lyzed in 10 mM phosphate buffer at pH 7.5 for 72 hours at room temperature. The beads were packed in a 2 mL glass column, 5 mm X 10 cm, and equilibrated in 50 mM sodium sulfate in phosphate buffer (10 mM), pH 20 7.2. The materials shown in TABLE IX, below, were dissolved in water and filtered (0.2 µm) prior to injec-tion onto the column: TABLE IX Separation of Biological Molecules by Size Exclusion Using Porous Polymer Beads Material MW (Daltons) Elution Volume blue dextran rss 2,000,000 1.45 mL thyroglobulin 670,000 1.53 catalase 247,000 1.63 bovine serum albumin 69,000 1.80 myoglobin 17,000 1.98 vitamin B-12 1,355 2.25 6M sodium sulfate 142 2.60 35 Each material (100 µL) was loaded onto the column and eluted in the running buffer at a flow rate of 0.2 mL/min. Detection of the elution volume was by UV absorbance at 280 nm. The 6M sodium sulfate provides an absorbance deflection due to a refractive index 40 change caused by the increased salt concentration, and provides a very low molecular weight non-protein marker. The graphed results show a linear relationship be-tween the log of the molecular weight and the elution 45 volume. These data are indicative of wide ranging size exclusion properties of the hydrolyzed VDM polymer. Based on this standard curve, this particular preparation of azlactone copolymer beads can be used for size exclu-sion chromatography over a molecular weight range of 50 4 log units (100 to 1,000,000). EXAMPLE 40 Demonstration of Reverse Phase Chromatography Azlactone polymer beads from Example 18 were derivatized by 1M octylamine in phosphate buffer (25 mM), pH 7.2, for 72 hours at room temperature. The beads were washed free of excess alkyl amine with buffer and were packed in an Omni 3 mm X 5 cm glass chromatography column. The 0.35 mL column was equilibrated in 1.7M ammonium sulfate (pH 7.0). Myo-globin was dissolved in the equilibration buffer and 1.25 mg was loaded onto the column. Elution with a de-creasing salt gradient of ammonium sulfate as in Exam-ple 35 did not result in any protein recovery. The use of typical protein reverse phase elution conditions, a 30 mL gradient of 1% trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) in water to 1% TFA in 70% methanol, resulted in recovery of the protein. The demonstration was repeated with poly-mer beads reacted with 0.5M methylamine (Cl), 2M ethylamine (C2) and 0.5M butylamine (C4) with similar results. Using the beads with C8 groups attached, injections of myoglobin, BSA, and lysozyme were made and eluted with a 30 mL gradient from 1% TFA in water to 1% TFA in 70% methanol at a flow rate of 0.1 mL/min. The elution profiles are summarized in Table X. TABLE X Reverse Phase Separations of Proteins Using Octylamine-Derivatized Copolymer Beads Peak Elution Integrated Area Protein (mL) (% of Total) Myoglobin 0.61 18 (Void volume) 6.1 28 36.3 50 BSA 0.67 8 (Void volume) 26.8 18 31.8 30 36.2 43 Lysozyme 0.72 9 (Void volume) 33.8 86 The differences in these elution profiles are indicative of the differences in the size and hydrophobic nature of these proteins and demonstrate the use of VDM beads derivatized with Cl to C8 groups in reverse phase chro-matography. EXAMPLE 41 25 30 EXAMPLE 39 Size Exclusion Characteristics of Derivatized VDM VDM copolymer from Example 18 was derivatized with two amine reagents of short chain lengths for further size exclusion studies. The beads were exposed to either 2M ethylamine in phosphate buffer (25 mM, pH 7.5) or 0.5M butylamine (in the same buffer system) for at least 72 hours at room temperature. The excess amines were removed by rinsing in buffer, and individ-ual 5 mm X 10 cm columns were prepared. Blue dextran, thyroglobulin, catalase, and bovine serum albumin were loaded onto the columns and eluted as described in Example 38. The results again demonstrate a linear relationship between the log of the molecular weight and the elution volume. Reverse Phase Chromatography of Low Molecular 55 Weight Materials VDM beads of Example 18 were reacted with excess n-hexadecylamine (C16) in diethyl ether for an hour. The unreacted amine was removed by filtration and washing with diethyl ether. The derivatized beads were 60 then dispersed in methanol and packed into a 4.6 X 100 mm stainless steel HPLC column. After equilibrating in 45/55 methanol/water, injections of small molecule organics were made and eluted at 0.25 mL/min with 65 UV detection at 280 nm. Table XI summarizes the re-tention times and further demonstrates the use of alkyla-mine derivatized VDM polymer beads as reverse phase chromatography supports. 37 5,336,742 38 TABLE XI TABLE XII Reverse Phase Separation of Low Molecular Weight Materials Retention Compound (Vol/void vol) uracil 1.0 benzophenone 1.57 nitrobenzene 2.15 EXAMPLE 42 Binding of Antibodies to Azlactone Copolymer-Coated Microtiter Wells Well Treatment Absorbance SD* CV** (%) Anti-IgG Control (No Treatment) 0.078 0.029 37 Azlactone Treated 0.095 0.023 25 Control 0.664 0.082 12 10 Azlactone Treated 1.161 0.115 9 SD = standard deviation CV = coefficient of variation (SD/mean) Coating of Azlactone Monomer onto Polystyrene Wells 2-Vinyl-4,4-dimethyl azlactone monomer (VDM) 15 was formulated with 0.25 g by weight of a photoinitia-tor (IRGACURE TM 651 (Ciba Geigy)), then painted on the surface of polystyrene microtiter wells (Im-mulon TM II, Dynatech, Springfield, Va.). The wells were then irradiated under a nitrogen atmosphere using 20 a bank of four fluorescent blacklight tubes (GTE Sylva-nia, Inc.) for 30 minutes. This resulted in the polymeri-zation of the azlactone monomer on the surface of the wells. Other monomers such as 4-isopropenyl-4,4-dime- 25 thylazlactone (IDM) can be coated in a similar manner. EXAMPLE 43 Coating Azlactone-Functional Copolymers Onto Polystyrene Wells 30 Copolymers of VDM and methyl methacrylate (MMA) were prepared by standard free radical solution polymerization techniques. Samples of copolymers con-taining VDM/MMA ratios (mole/mole) of 85:15, 70:30, 35 and 50:50 were each diluted with 10% solids in ethyl acetate. Coating of microtiter wells was accomplished by placing 3 drops of polymer solution into each well using a disposable pipette, followed by evaporation in a circulating air oven at 60 degrees C. for 30 minutes. Alternatively, copolymer solution was painted onto the wells, followed by solvent evaporation. EXAMPLE 44 Use of Polystyrene Wells for Improved Immunoassays 45 Evaluation of the modified surfaces of the wells of EXAMPLE 42 was carried out by adding aqueous solutions of mouse IgG (Sigma Chemical) or anti-goat IgG (Cooper-BioMedical, Malvern, Pa.) at 50 ttg/mL in PBS, pH 7.0, to 48 wells and incubating them at room temperature for 2 hours. The solutions were aspirated and a fixing solution of BSA (2.5 mg/mL) and sucrose (5%) in PBS was incubated for 30 minutes. The coated wells were then aspirated and dried. A similar number of of unmodified wells were coated by this procedure. The amount of bound protein was evaluated by add-ing enzyme-labeled reagents, anti-mouse IgG-alkaline phosphatase and goat IgG-horseradish peroxidase to mouse IgG and anti-goat IgG treated wells, respec-tively, incubating for 1 hour and washing the wells three times with a pH 7.5 buffered non-ionic surfactant solution. After adding the appropriate enzyme sub-strates, the color produced by the bound enzyme-labeled reagents was measured. The data from these wells are summarized in TABLE XII below. Wells treated with mouse IgG produced nearly 75% more signal than untreated wells while the anti-goat IgG wells produced over a 20% increase in coupled signal. The coefficient of variation of the modified wells were about one-third less than those of the untreated wells. The data of TABLE XII indicates that both the amount of protein bound and the reproducibility of the treatment are increased over the normal passive adsorp-tion technique. EXAMPLE 45 Improved Binding of Allergenic Proteins to Coated Polystyrene Wells Perennial ryegrass (PRG) extract and chymopapain (CP) (3M Diagnostic Systems, Santa Clara, Calif.) were isotopically labeled with I-125 and incubated in control (untreated) and VDM/MMA-treated polystyrene mi-crotiter wells prepared as in Example 43 for 2 hours at ambient temperature. Radioactive solution was re-moved by aspiration and unreacted/unbound sites on the surface were blocked by incubation with serum albumin for 1 hour. The residual radioactivity of the dried wells was determined and the corresponding amounts of bound protein calculated as shown in TABLE XIII below. TABLE XIII Binding of Allergenic Proteins to Coated and Control Polystyrene Wells Bound Sample Protein (ng) SD CV (%) PRG Control 66 2.2 3.4 VDM 79 3.8 4.8 CP 50 Control 45 2.2 4.8 VDM 56 2.6 4.7 The data of TABLE XIII show that VDM-coated polystyrene wells bound 20-25% more allergen protein 55 with similar precision than the Control. EXAMPLE 46 Increased Irreversible Binding of Allergenic Proteins to Coated Polystyrene Wells 60 Microtiter test wells coated with I-125-labeled-aller- gens, as in EXAMPLE 45, were incubated with 0.1% SDS at 37° C. or in phosphate buffer at ambient temper-ature. After 4 hours solutions were removed by aspira-tion and rinsed twice with deionized water, and the 65 residual bound I-125 was rinsed twice with deionized water, and the residual bound I-125 was determined. The percent protein remaining is presented below in TABLE XIV. 39 5,336,742 40 TABLE XII Increased Resistance of Azlactone-Bound Protein to Solubilization by Denaturant % Protein Remaining PRG* CP • SAMPLE BUFFER SDS BUFFER SDS Control 83 43 74 37 50/50 VDM/MMA 85 64 82 68 70/30 VDM/MMA 85 64 85 73 85/15 VDM/MMA 86 67 83 73 IDM 83 45 77 49 •PRG = perennial rye grass • CP = chymopapain With the possible exception of the isopropenyl deriv-atives with PRG, the data of TABLE XIV show there is considerably higher residual binding in azlactone-treated wells than in controls indicating covalent bind-ing of allergen protein. COMPARATIVE EXAMPLE 47 The following Example is an attempt to prepare azlactone-functional beads by a procedure similar to that of EXAMPLE 3 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,070,348. Heptane (42 g), perchloroethylene (84 g) and benzoyl 25 peroxide (0.5 g) were placed in a 500 mL round bottom flask. Acrylamide (15 g), VDM (15 g), ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (0.76 g), and polymeric stabilizer (0.025 g) were dissolved in DMF (20 g) and this solution was 30 then added to the reaction flask at room temperature. The polymeric stabilizer used was an isobutyla-crylate/n- butylacrylate/VDM (45:45:10) copolymer which had been reacted with choline salicylate by a procedure similar to that of EXAMPLE 24A. The mon-omer phase was distributed in the organic phase by stirring at 350 rpm and was purged with N2 for 45 min-utes. With external cooling, the polymerization was initiated by the addition of dimethylamiline (0.25 g). Within three minutes, the monomer mixture had sepa- 40 rated out as a large, crosslinked mass around the stirrer shaft. No beads were evident. EXAMPLE 48 COMPARATIVE 45 The following is an attempt to prepare an azlactone-functional bead according to the teachings of U.S. Pat. No. 4,070,348. The reaction was carried out using the same ingredients and their amounts as specified in EX-AMPLE 25 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,070,348, except that 5C VDM was substituted for glycidyl acrylate. Again, a crosslinked polymer mass separated within two minutes of initiation of the reaction. No beads were evident. Various modifications and alterations of this inven-tion will become apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of this in-vention, and it should be understood that this invention is not to be unduly limited to the illustrative embodi- ments set forth herein. 6C We claim: 1. A crosslinked, azlactone-functional polymer sup-port having more than 5 and up to 99 molar parts of multifunctional ethylenically unsaturated crosslinking monomer incorporated therein, and wherein said poly- 65 mer support swells less than three-fold in water. 2. An azlactone-functional polymer support accord-ing to claim 1 having units of the formula: wherein Rl is H or CH3, R2 and R3 independently can be an alkyl group hav-ing 1 to 14 carbon atoms, a cycloalkyl group hav-ing 3 to 14 carbon atoms, an aryl group having 5 to 12 ring atoms, an arenyl group having 6 to 26 car-bon and unitary heteroatoms, or R2 and R3 taken together with the carbon to which they are joined can form a carbocyclic ring containing 4 to 12 ring atoms, and n is an integer 0 or 1. 3. The azlactone-functional polymer support accord-ing to claim 2 wherein RI is hydrogen. 4. The azlactone-functional polymer support accord-ing to claim 2 wherein R2 and R3 are methyl. 5. An adduct polymer support having units of the formula: 0 R2 O R1—i—IC—NHi--CH2#ICXG CH2 R3 I wherein Rl, R2, R3 and n are as previously defined, n=0, or 1, X is —0—, —S—, —NH—, or —NR4 wherein R4 is alkyl or aryl, and G is the residue of HXG which performs the com-plexing, catalyzing, separating, or reagent function of the adduct polymer support, said adduct polymer support containing greater than 5 and up to 99 molar parts of multifunctional ethyl-enically unsaturated crosslinking monomer incor-porated therein, and wherein said polymer support swells less than three-fold in water. 6. The adduct polymer support according to claim 5 wherein R1, R2, and R3 are methyl and n=0. 7. The adduct polymer support according to claim 5 wherein HXG is selected from the group consisting of biomacromolecules, catalysts, reagents, and dyes. 8. An adduct polymer support according to claim 5 containing in the range of greater than 20 and up to 99 molar parts of crosslinking monomer incorporated therein. 9. An adduct polymer support having units of the formula 10 15 20 R2 N—C—R3 5 RI—_C SCH2)n CH2 O—C/ I II 0 5,336,742 41 42 G is the residue of HXG which performs the com- plexing, catalyzing, separating, or reagent function o Rz o of the adduct polymer support, said adduct polymer support containing greater than RI-C-C-NHC- -CH2 CXG 5 20 and up to 99 molar parts of multifunctional eth- CH2 R3 ylenically unsaturated crosslinking monomer in- corporated therein and having a degree of swelling in water less than 3 times the unswelled volume. 10. The azlactone-functional polymer support ac- wherein 10 cording to claim 1 wherein said ethylenically unsatu- rated crosslinking monomer is present in the range of 7 R1, R2, R3 and n are as previously defined, to 99 molar parts. 11. The azlactone-functional polymer support ac- n=0 or 1, cording to claim 1 wherein said ethylenically unsatu- X is —0—, —S—, —NH—, or 15 rated crosslinking monomer is present in the range of 10 to 99 molar parts. 12. The adduct polymer support according to claim 5 wherein said ethylenically unsaturated crosslinking — i R4 monomer is present in the range of 7 to 99 molar parts. 20 13. The adduct polymer support according to claim 5 wherein said ethylenically-unsaturated crosslinking monomer is present in the range of 10 to 99 molar parts. wherein R4 is alkyl or aryl, and 25 30 35 MI 45 50 55 60 65 UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION PATENT NO. : 5,336,742 DATED : August 9, 1994 INVENTOR(S) : Steven M. Heilmann et al. It is certified that error appears in the above-indentified patent and that said Letters Patent is hereby corrected as shown below: Col. 5, line 66, R1 should read — Rl —. Col. 11, lines 60-67, replace that portion of Chemical Equations lA with: — O 1~ — i ----- Be RC i •. • O(CA) CRi (CR2)II Col. 32, line 7, M.P. Righey should be — M.P. Rigney —. Signed and Sealed this Eighteenth Day of April, 1995 Attest: 1j:4(? BRUCE LEHMAN Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks Attesting Officer