Title
Homogeneous grafting copolymerization of methyl methacrylate onto cellulose using ammonium persulfate
Authors
ZHONGHUA SUN and FUSHAN CHEN

Received January 12, 2013
Published Volume 48 Issue 3-4 March-April
Keywords homogeneous grafting, cellulose, methylmethacrylate, grafting percentage, N,N-dimethylacetamide/ lithium chloride

Abstract
The homogeneous grafting of methylmethacrylate (MMA) onto cellulose was carried out by using ammonium persulfate as initiator. DMAc/LiCl was used as solvent for the dissolution of cellulose and medium for the homogeneous graft copolymerization. The efficient reaction conditions of the grafting reaction were confirmed by weighing methods. The results showed that the efficient reaction conditions were as follows: reaction time, 2 h, mass ratio of MMA/cellulose, 1/1 (g/g), mass ratio of initiator/cellulose, 6/50 (g/g), and reaction temperature, 80 °C. Under these conditions, the GP of cellulose under homogeneous conditions reached 76%, higher than that obtained under heterogeneous conditions. The grafted polymer was characterized by FTIR, SEM, TG-DTA and XRD. The results showed that the original crystalline structure was destroyed during the dissolution process of cellulose, which helped to improve the effectiveness of the grafting copolymerization reaction.