Grafting onto polypropylene II. Solvent effect on graft copolymerization of acrylonitrile by preirradiation method

Abstract

Abstract Acrylonitrile (AN) has been graft copolymerized onto isotactic polypropylene (IPP) by the preirradiation method using Co 60 as the source of gamma rays in the presence of ethanol, n ‐propanol, isopropanol, n ‐butanol, tert. butyl alcohol, and n ‐pentanol. Alcohols vary in their ability to influence grafting of AN onto IPP and the following reactivity order was found: n ‐pentanol > n ‐butanol > tert .‐butanol > n ‐propanol > ethanol > isopropanol. An attempt has been made to explain the observed reactivity pattern shown by different alcohols. Thermal behavior of the graft copolymer has been compared with that of IPP and irradiated IPP and it was observed that grafted IPP is thermally more stable than IPP and irradiated IPP.