Polyacrylic acid grafting onto isotactic polypropylene fiber: Methods, characterization, and properties

Abstract

The graft copolymerization of acrylic acid onto isotactic polypropylene has been investigated. The grafting was carried out using benzoyl peroxide initiator. Grafting is essentially a surface phenomenon and takes place, mostly, in amorphous region of the fiber. Emphasis, therefore, was placed on various pretreatment techniques for swelling of the fiber, viz, pretreatment with toluene and 1,1 0 2,2 0 tetrachloroethane, ultrasound, and photoirradiation. Process parameters, characterization study such as IR spectroscopy, TGA, and DTA, and properties such as tensile properties, melting temperature, dyeability towards basic dyes, and ion exchange properties were investigated. Benzene was found to be the most suitable solvent for initiator as against the acetone. Tenacity was found to be increased with increase in graft yield and reached to maximum at about 5% graft add-on, and then decreased with further increase in graft add-on. Proportionally, a converse effect was reported in the study of elongation to break. Thermal stability of polypropylene was found to be improved because of grafting. The grafted polypropylene also showed satisfactory dyeability toward basic dyes and also exhibits very good ion exchange properties.

In Textiles

“…Grafting is a possible way for this fi ber to impart desirable properties such as dyeability, hydrophylicity, antistatic properties, soil repellency, and thermal stability [101] and even to make its surface suitable for drug immobilization [102] .…”

“…Both chemical [101,103] and irradiation means have been adopted for creation of the active site on polypropylene required for initiation of graft polymerization. However, the majority of work on the grafting of polypropylene reported has used the irradiation technique.…”

“…However, the majority of work on the grafting of polypropylene reported has used the irradiation technique. γ radiation [104,105] , radiation by electron beam [102,106] , and UV radiation [101,107] all have been successfully used for the creation of radicals on polypropylene surfaces.…”

“…As APPLICATION IN POLYPROPYLENE: Graft Polymerization expected, acrylic acid grafted polypropylene fi ber has shown good dyeability toward basic dyes [101] . MAA grafted polypropylene fi ber has shown a sharp increase in dye uptake for basic dyes [108] as well as for disperse dyes [109] .…”

“…The treatment, which causes further loosening of the amorphous region, helps in the grafting process. It has been observed that pretreatment of polypropylene fi ber with a solvent such as toluene or tetrachloroethylene enhances the grafting process considerably [101] . Graft add -on has increased to nearly 20% in pretreated polypropylene from a value of 2.3% in the case of untreated fi ber.…”