THERMAL-DECOMPOSITION OF CELLULOSE GRAFTED WITH ACRYLONITRILE IN A HOMOGENEOUS SYSTEM

The homogeneous grafting of acrylonitrile (AN) onto cellulose was carried out in a dimethyl sulfoxide/paraformaldehyde solvent system. The thermal decomposition behavior of cellulose, polyacrylonitrile (PAN), AN grafted products, and cellulose/PAN blends was investigated. The grafted products were regarded as polymer blends containing graft copolymers because cellulose and PAN homopolymer (homo-PAN) fractions were not extracted from them. The decomposition temperatures of the grafted products with higher PAN graft polymer(graft-PAN) content decreased remarkably than those of cellulose and PAN. The decomposition thermograms of the grafted products with higher homo-PAN content and those of the blended samples were similar to the superimposed ones of those of cellulose and PAN. The microphase separated structures of the grafted products with higher graft-PAN content were fine. Moreover, the water accessibility of these samples was larger than that of cellulose. It was suggested that the thermal decomposition measurements are effective for estimating compatibility in cellulose/PAN blends.