Modification and characterization of polyvinyl chloride by graft copolymerization with acrylamide

Abstract

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) was dehydrochlorinated in alkali solution (Sodium Hydroxide NaOH) and then grafted with acrylamide (Am) by free-radical polymerization and using benzoyl peroxide (BPO) as an initiator under inert atmosphere. The investigations involved examining the degree of dehydrochlorination on PVC by using different concentration from NaOH in the solution (1, 3 and 5 molarity) and determine the optimum dehydrochlorination and grafting efficiency of acrylamide on pure PVC and different molarity dehydrochlorinated PVC. The dehydrochlorinated polyvinyl chloride (DHPVC) and grafted copolymer (PVC-graft-Acrylamide) was characterized by FTIR, Raman spectrometer, EDX analysis. The results shown that, the highest loss of chlorine by using the 3 M ratio of NaOH and the best grafting was in the use of DHPVC 3M.