Graft copolymerization of vinyl monomers on nylon using the novel standing bath technique

Abstract

<span style="font-size:14.0pt;line-height: 115%;font-family:" times="" new="" roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"times="" roman";="" color:black;mso-ansi-language:en-in;mso-fareast-language:en-in;mso-bidi-language:="" hi"="" lang="EN-IN">A novel 'Standing Bath' technique has been developed for grafting vinyl monomers (acrylonitrile and acrylic acid) onto polyamide fibres. The technique is based on the principle of utilizing chemicals which form complexes with the monomer molecules, thereby protecting them from the homopolymer formation reaction in successive baths. It is observed that the amount of utilization of monomer in grafting can be enhanced from about 0.66% in the conventional method to about 5.56% in the new method. The use of quaternary ammonium compounds, viz. Cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide and cetyl pyridinium bromide, in grafting has made it possible to carry out grafting three and six times from the same bath in case of acrylonitrile and acrylic acid monomers respectively. The nature of graft copolymers has also been evaluated by dyeability and moisture regain studies. The minute differences between the physical and chemical nature of the grafts obtained from the successive standing baths can be observed by these two techniques.</span>