Hydroxylgruppenhaltige Celluloseacetat-Mikrokugeln und Verfahren zu ihrer Herstellung

The invention relates to cellulose acetate microglobules containing hydroxyl groups, said microglobules being spherical, a particle size of 0.1 to 50 <mu>m, an approximately compact cellulose acetate core, having a sedimentation volume of 0.5 to 4 ml/g and a porosity of < 0.4 ml/g on swelling in water, and being used to great advantage as a separating and carrier material for chromatographic and diagnostic applications in the field of biotechnology, biochemistry and medicine. In the production process according to the invention, cellulose acetate is dissolved in a volatile solvent which is immiscible with water, said solution being dispersed in an aqueous medium, the resulting polymer solution drops being compacted by evaporating the solvent and the surface layer of the resulting microglobules being partly saponified directly in the dispersion medium during or after the evaporation of the solvent so that the percentage of the resulting cellulose layer in the surface area has 1 to 50 pe rcent by weight of the total particle mass.