Copolymers of starch and polyacrylonitrile: The dilution effect

Abstract

Abstract In the ceric ammonium nitrate‐initiated graft polymerization of acrylonitrile (AN) with starch, grafting frequencies and molecular weights of grafted polyacrylonitrile changed from 600 anhydroglucose units (AGU)/graft and 120000 to 280 AGU/graft and 36000 when concentrations of starch and AN were varied from 0.27 and 1.20 to 0.023 and 0.235 moles/l. of water, respectively. The influence of variety of starch, size of the starch granules, and reaction time was studied, and possible reasons for the influence of reactant concentration on the composition of the copolymer are considered.