KINETIC-STUDY OF ACRYLIC MONOMER GRAFTING IN THE PRESENCE OF A POLYFUNCTIONAL MONOMER ONTO RADIOPEROXIDED POLY(ETHYLENE TETRAFLUOROETHYLENE) COPOLYMER

Acrylic acid (AA), methacrylic acid (MA) and diethyleneglycol dimethacrylate (DEGDM) are grafted onto 100 mum radioperoxided poly(ethylene-tetrafluoroethylene) copolymer (ETFE). The influences of the homopolymerization inhibitor, the solvent, the grafting temperature, and the monomer content on the grafting kinetics are studied. For the grafting of acrylic monomers, the limitation of the grafting yield is more important for AA grafting whatever the nature of the metallic salt; the difference between the two homopolymerization inhibitors is their respective concentration to obtain a given grafting yield. For the AA + DEGDM cografting, the grafting yield increases with the DEGDM content of the grafting solution. In both cases, the overall activation energy has been calculated, and its variation as a function of the composition of the grafting solution is discussed. (C) 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.