Study of electron beam preirradiation-induced graft copolymerization of acrylic acid onto powdered isotactic polypropylene

In order to obtain required polymer materials, acrylic acid was grafted ont o powdered isotactic polypropylene by an electron beam preirradiation techn ique. All processes (including irradiation, storage of the samples, and gra fting polymerization) were carried out in air. The effects of irradiation d ose, storage time, reaction temperature, moth's salt, acid, and monomer con centration were investigated and discussed in detail. The results show that the grafting can be achieved well without purging oxygen, and moth's salt is indispensable for initiating grafting reaction and decreasing the homopo lymerization. Optimal reaction conditions can be generalized for large-scal e production of the desired polymer materials. (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.