Preparation and characterization of the copolymers obtained by grafting of monoacryloxyethyl phosphate onto polytetrafluoro ethylene membranes and poly(tetrafluoroethylene-co-hexafluoropropylene) films

Two fully fluorinated polymers, poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE) membranes and poly(tetrafluoroethylene-co-hexafluoropropylene) (FEP) films, were modified by graft copolymerization with monoacryloxyethyl phosphate (MAEP) in an aqueous solution at ambient temperature using gamma irradiation. The modified membranes were characterized by XPS, FTIR, and phosphate analysis. A correlation between peak heights in the FTIR PAS spectra and the overall grafting yield was found. Neither the surface coverage (as obtained from XPS multiplex scans) nor the overall grafting yield (as obtained from phosphate analysis) showed simple correlations on the monomer concentrations (20-40%) or the irradiation doses (25-150 kGy) within the ranges investigated. Similar surface coverage was achieved on the PTFE membranes and on the FEP films. In contrast, the overall grafting yields were significantly higher for the PTFE membranes than for the FEP films. The high porosity of the PTFE membranes is the most likely explanation for these differences in grafting. (C) 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.