Grafting Vinyl Monomers onto Silk Fibers. XIII. Graft Copolymerization of Methyl Methacrylate onto Silk Using Fe3+−Cysteine Redox System

Abstract

Abstract The graft copolymerization of methyl methacrylate onto silk fibers initiated by the ferric chloride-eysteine redox system has been investigated in aqueous medium. The rate of grafting was calculated by varying the concentrations of monomer, initiator, acidity of the medium, cysteine, and temperature. The percentage of grafting increases with an increase of Fe3+ concentration up to 2,5 × 10−3 mol/L and thereafter it decreases. The graft yield increases steadily upon increasing the monomer concentration. The graft yield also increases with increasing cysteine concentration up to 0.5 × 10−3 mol/L and then decreases. The effect of the perchloric acid concentration, temperature, solvents, and certain neutral salts on graft yield has also been investigated and a suitable reaction scheme has been proposed.