Grafting ethyl methacrylate onto partially hydrolysed starch usingceric ion as initiator

Abstract

Poly(ethyl methacrylate) has been grafted onto partially hydrolysed starch (84.04% conversion) by using ceric ion redox initiator in an aqueous medium at 29^oC. The extent of graft polymer formation was measured in terms of conversion of monomer to polymer, graft level, molecular weight of grafted polymer chains and g rafting frequency as a function of ceric ion concentration. It was found that an eight-fold increase in ceric ion concentration was

accompanied by marked changes (of about three-fold in graft level, six-fold in molecular weight of grafted polymer chains and four-fold in grafting frequency) in the values of the measured grafting parametter. A ten-fold increase in the polymeric substrate to dispersion medium ratio was found to increase the extent of graft polymer formation onto partially hydrolysed starch.