Study on the Graft Copolymerization of AN onto PP by Using Supercritical Carbon Dioxide

Abstract

The research reported in this paper aimed at exploring the advantages of using supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) as an environmentally benign solvent and swelling agent for carrying out the grafting process of acrylonitrile (AN) onto polypropylene (PP) in the solid state by using benzoyl peroxide (BPO) as initiator in the reaction. In order to get a well graft ratio, the effects of various factors in this grafting reaction are investigated. Those factors included the reaction time, reaction temperature, monomer and initiator concentrations and the CO2 pressure. IR was used to characterize the constituent of the graft polymer. Then anti-aging of the PP-g-AN was studied by UV-vis. Results showed that the scCO2-assisted solid-state grafting process of AN onto PP did have some scientifically interesting and industrially relevant advantages over the melt process. Compare with virgin PP, the graft polymer have a better performance in anti-aging.