Radical grafting from glass fiber surface: Graft polymerization of vinyl monomers initiated by azo groups introduced onto the surface

This paper describes the radical graft polymerization of vinyl monomers from glass fiber surface initiated by alkylazo groups introduced onto the fiber surface. The introduction of azo groups onto the glass fiber surface was achieved by reaction of isocyanate groups which were previously attached onto the surface with two kinds of azo initiators, 4,4'-azobis(4-cyanopentanoic acid) (ACPA) and 2,2'-azobis(2-cyanopropanel) (ACP). The amounts of surface azo groups introduced by ACPA and ACP were both determined to be 1.3 x 10(-5) mol g(-1) by nitrogen analysis. The radical graft polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) was found to be initiated in the presence of the glass fiber having surface azo groups. During the polymerization, part of resultant poly(MMA) grafted onto the fiber surface through propagation of the polymer from the surface radicals produced by the decomposition of the azo groups. The percentage of grafting of poly(MMA) reached 48.1% after 24 h. The graft polymerizations of other monomers, such as styrene, N-vinylcarbazole, and acrylic acid, were also initiated by the surface azo groups, and the corresponding polymer effectively grafted onto the surface. (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 37: 2121-2128, 1999.