Radiation-Induced Graft Copolymerization of Acrylamide onto Carboxymethylcellulose and Modification of its Chemical Structure

The monomer, acrylamide, was graft copolymerized onto carboxymethylcellulose using gamma-rays as initiator. The reactions were carried out in a homogenous aqueous medium. After removal of the homopolymer, the graft copolymer was characterized by FTIR spectroscopy. The structure of pure pectin and grafted with monomer was also characterized by thermogravimetric analysis. The thermal properties of pure pectin and grafted with monomer were evaluated with a simultaneous thermal analysis system. The results showed that the thermal stability of grafted polyacrylamide samples was remarkably improved. A plausible mechanism of grafting has also been suggested. The overall activation energy for the grafting was estimated to be 36.60 kJ/mol.