Acrylonitrile grafting onto nylon-6 fabric. I. Synthesis and characterization

Graft copolymerization of acrylonitrile (AN) monomer into nylon fabrics without homopolymer formation in the raction medium was carried out to avoid the environmental problems and minimize the product cost. This was enabled by creation of free radicals built-in insitue on both surfaces and intermicelles of nylon fabric. The creation of these free radicals was generated by using potassium persulfate (KPS) as a main oxidizing agent in conjunction with sodium bisulfite (SBS) or benzaldehyde sodium bisulfite adduct (BSBS) as reducing agents. In addition to the redox initiation type and concentration, the graft yield (GY), homopolymer (HP), and total conversion percents were also studied in relation to the reaction time and temperature as well as liquor ratio and monomer concentration. At AN concentration of 0.754mol/L, grafted nylon fabrics having GY of 12.5% and 14.9% were obtained without any HP formation using 1.0/2.0 x 10(-2) mol/L for each of KPS/SBS and KPS/BSBS, respectively. Increasing the monomer concentration up to 1.886 mol/L outstandingly increases the GY to 31.7% and 35.6%, also without HP formation, using 0.3/0.6 x 10(-2) mol/L for each KPS/SBS and KPS/BSBS, respectively. The grafted nylon fabrics were characterized by infrared (IR) spectra and thickness measurement.