In this paper, the regularities of graft copolymerization of butyl acrylate (BA) onto potato starch using ceric ammonium nitrate (CAN) as an initiator was reported. The result showed that the grafting percentage and grafting efficiency percentage were considerably affected by initiator concentration, monomer concentration, reaction time and temperature. The optimum conditions are the concentrations of BA and initiator is 1.105mol/l and 8.80mmol/l respectively, the temperature of reaction is 550°C, the time of reaction is 3h. The molecular weight of grafted poly (butyl acrylate) has been determined. On the basis of experimental results, the mechanism of grafting was explored, and new kinetic equation of the graft copolymerization was established. The equation corresponds with the results of the experiment.