Porous copolymers of maleic anhydride (MA) and divinylbezene (DVB) in the form of regular microspheres were prepared by suspension polymerization. During copolymerization the mixture of 1,4‐dioxane and n‐dodecane as a pore‐forming diluent was used. It was found that specific surface area of the obtained beads is strongly dependent on the diluent system and polymerization medium and achieves a value from 4 to 535 m2/g. To determine the influence of polymerization medium on the selectivity and polarity of the copolymers, inverse gas chromatography (IGC) was applied. To determine these parameters, three procedures were applied: overall polarity, the selectivity triangle, and the ΔC method. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012