Preparation of Graft Copolymers By Means of Uv Photolysis of Poly(Methyl Vinyl Ketone) and Reverse Osmosis Performance of the Membranes from the Oximes of the Copolymers

Abstract

ABSTRACT An attempt was made to prepare a graft copolymer consisting of poly(methyl vinyl ketone) (PMVK) as a backbone chain and polyacrylonitrile, poly(4-vinylpyridine), or polystyrene as a graft chain by UV irradiation of a solution of PMKV in the presence of acrylonitrile, 4-vinylpyridine, or styrene. the influence of reaction conditions on the yield, composition, and viscosity of the resulting graft copolymers was investigated. It was suggested from NMR and gel permeation chromatography that those graft copolymers contained a high molecular weight fraction of narrow distribution and block copolymers as well. the reverse osmosis membranes derived from the oxime and amidoxime of the graft copolymers showed a characteristic performance of exhibiting a maximal difference between rejections against NaCl and CoCl2 at a certain addition ratio of crosslinking agent, which was not observed in the membranes from copolymers by conventional radical copolymerization. the relationship between these phenomena and the branching structure of the graft copolymers was discussed.