ULTRAVIOLET-RADIATION INDUCED GRAFT-COPOLYMERIZATION OF HYDROXYETHYL METHACRYLATE ONTO COTTON CELLULOSE

Two-hydroxyethyl methacrylate was grafted onto cotton cellulose using photoinitiation technique in the presence of the photoinitiator benzoin ethyl ether. Various parameters of the graft-copolymerization reaction, namely time, temperature, initiator, and monomer concentrations, were optimized using the grafting bath containing 10% methanol/acetone to dissolve the photoinitiator. The cotton sample, preswollen in sodium hydroxide, was subjected to grafting under optimized conditions. The preswollen samples showed higher graft add-on values at the equivalent monomer concentration. The moisture regain initially decreased at lower graft add-on levels and increased marginally with higher graft add-on. This behavior of the grafted substrate with respect to moisture regain has been explained.