Thermal stability of grafted fibers

Abstract

AbstractThis paper presents the experimental results on the study of thermal stability of grafted fibers, i.e., polypropylene‐, polyester‐, and rayon‐grafted fibers. These fibers were obtained by radiation grafting processes using hydrophylic monomers such as 1‐vinyl 2‐pyrrolidone, acrylic acid, N‐methylol acrylamide, and acrylonitrile. The thermal stability of the fibers was studied using a Shimadzu Thermal Analyzer DT‐30. It was found that the thermal stability of the fibers, which can be indicated by the value of the activation energy for thermal degradation, was not much improved by radiation grafting. The degree of improvement depends on the thermal stability of the monomers used for grafting. The thermal stability of a polypropylene fiber, either a grafted or an ungrafted one, was found to be inferior compared to the polyester of a rayon fiber, which may be due to the lack of CO and CC bonds in the polypropylene molecules. The thermal stability of a fiber grafted with acrylonitrile monomer was found to be better than that of an ungrafted one. However, no improvement was detected in the fibers grafted with 1‐vinyl 2‐pyrrolidone monomer, which may be due to the lower thermal stability of poly(1‐vinyl–2‐pyrrolidone), compared to the polypropylene or polyester fibers.