The radiation-induced graft copolymerisation of styrene/maleic anhydride and maleic anhydride/vinyl acetate onto cellulose

Abstract

The grafting of styrene/maleic anhydride and maleic anhydride/vinyl acetate onto cellulose from mixed monomer compositions has been studied as a preliminary to the use of the resulting graft copolymers in enzyme immobilisation studies. Grafting has been shown to be effectively non-steady state in character. Attempts have been made to determine initial rates for the grafting reaction so that various dependencies can be ascertained. Values for $\text{k}{}^2{}_{\mathrm{p}}\text{k}{}_{\mathrm{t}}$ have been determined along with the corresponding mean kinetic chain length values. These increase markedly with increase in the bulk concentrations of the monomers used in these combinations.