Title
Photo-induced synthesis and characterization of poly(methyl acrylate) grafted sodium salt of partially carboxymethylated sodium alginate
Authors
J. H. TRIVEDI A. V. CHOURASIA and H. C. TRIVEDI

Published Volume 49 Issue 1 January
Keywords photo-induced grafting, methyl acrylate, sodium salt of partially carboxymethylated sodium alginate, optimum reaction conditions, characterization

Abstract
Photo-induced graft copolymerization of methyl acrylate (MA) onto sodium salt of partially carboxymethylated sodium alginate (Na-PCMSA, DS = 1.10) was carried out in an aqueous medium using ceric ammonium nitrate (CAN) as photoinitiator to synthesize a novel graft copolymer, Na-PCMSA-g-PMA, which may find its potential application in the removal of the toxic metals from aqueous solution. By studying the influence of concentrations of nitric acid, photoinitiator (CAN), monomer (MA), as well as reaction time, temperature and amount of substrate, on the grafting yields, the reaction conditions for optimum grafting were evaluated. Under optimized conditions, the maximum values of the grafting yields achieved were %G = 303.57 and %GE = 98.32. The experimental results were found to be in very good agreement with the kinetic scheme proposed earlier by us. The grafting process was confirmed and the products were characterized by FTIR, TGA and SEM techniques.