N. El-Sawy, A. Elassar
Aug 1, 1998
Citations
0
Influential Citations
28
Citations
Journal
European Polymer Journal
Abstract
Abstract N -Vinyl-2-pyrrolidone (NVP) was grafted onto low density polyethylene (LDPE) films using γ -radiation by the direct method. The effect of grafting conditions such as inhibitor and monomer concentrations on the grafting yield was investigated. The homopolymerization of NVP was reduced to a minimum using ferric chloride solution and the suitable concentration of the inhibitor was found to be 0.008 wt%. The grafted polymer was modified using carbonitriles ( 2a – e ). The swelling behaviour increases with the degree of grafting. It was observed that the swelling behaviour of the modified grafted films with α -cyano- β -(2-thienyl)crotononitrile was an improvement on that of the grafted one. The modification process for the grafted polymer was confirmed by IR spectrophotometry. The biological activity of the grafted films and the modified one with α -cyano- β -(2-thienyl)crotononitrile was studied. The higher the degree of grafting the higher the carbonitrile reacted. The results suggest that the biological activity of the modified grafted films was higher than that for the grafted one, under the same conditions. An improvement of hydrophilic grafted membrane by modification with some carbonitrile compounds showed great promise in some practical applications.