Graft copolymerization of methyl acrylate onto chitosan initiated by potassium diperiodatonickelate (IV)

A novel redox system, potassium diperiodatonickelate [Ni (IV)]-chitosan, was employed to initiate the graft copolymerization of methyl acrylate (MA) onto chitosan in alkali aqueous solution. The effects of reaction variables such as monomer concentration, initiator concentration, reaction time, pH and temperature were determined. By means of a series of copolymerization, the grafting conditions were optimized. The maximum grafting percentage obtained was 404.1% when 0.3 g chitosan was copolymerized with 1.8 mL monomer at 35degreesC for 5 hours with [Ni (IV)] = 9.4 x 10(-4) M and the total volume was 20 mL. Ni (IV)-chitosan system is found to be an efficient redox initiator for this graft copolymerization. A single electron transfer mechanism is proposed to explain the formation of radicals and the initiation. The grafted copolymers were characterized by IR and X-ray diffraction diagrams. The thermal stability of chitosan and chitosan-g-PMA was studied by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA).