Rigid biporous beads (BiPB) were fabricated by double emulsification. An aqueous suspension of super-fine calcium carbonate granules and organic solvent were used as porogenic agents to create superpores and micropores, respectively. The polymerization of monomers, glycidyl methacrylate, and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate was initiated with benzoin ethyl ether by ultraviolet irradiation. Modified with diethylamine (DEA), the BiPB were derivatized into an anion-exchange medium (which is denoted as DEA-BiPB). The DEA-BiPB with an average diameter of 46.3 mu m was characterized to possess two types of pores, that is, micropores (20-200 nm) and superpores (500-5300 nm). Flow hydrodynamic experiments showed that the DEA-BiPB column had a smaller backpressure than that of the conventional microporous beads column at a given flow rate. The static adsorption capacity of the DEA-BiPB was close to that of the DEA-MiPB for bovine serum albumin. However, frontal analysis demonstrated that the dynamic binding capacity of the DEA-BiPB column was two times higher than that of the DEA-MiPB at a flow rate of 1800 cm/h. Moreover, the purification of the molecular chaperone GroEL was carried out with the DEA-BiPB column at two flow rates (150 and 1500 cm/h). This showed that the GroEL purification was nearly the same at the two flow rates tested. These results indicate that the DEA-BiPB column is promising for high-speed protein chromatography. (C) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 103: 17-23, 2007