Using Binary Mixtures of Vinyl Monomers for Synthesizing Cellulose Graft Copolymers

Abstract : The possibility of giving modified cellulose fibers a set of new commercially valuable characteristics can obviously be greatly expanded by grafting from binary mixtures of monomers. Moreover, grafting from a binary mixture of monomers is of considerable scientific interest, especially for explaining the kinetic characteristics of this reaction. It is evident from the data provided that when acrylonitrile (AN) is added to styrene (St), vinyl acetate (VA) and methyl acrylate (MA) or vinylidene chloride (VDC) is added to MA, we see a synergistic effect. Thus, for example, when the reaction is carried out for 60 minutes, 68% of pure AN and 7.2% of pure St are grafted to the viscose staple fiber, whereas 235% of the mixture of AN with St (63.5% of AN) is grafted under the same conditions. There is no synergistic effect when mixtures of AN and VDC or St and MA are used. The graft copolymerization rate of the mixture of St and MA is close to the additive value, and that of AN with VDC - even somewhat lower that the additive value.