Synthesis of Starch-G-Polymethylmethacrylate through Emulsion Photopolymerization

Many researchers believe that grafting polymer chains to starch could be the best way to make non-toxic and biodegradable polymers. Emulsion photopolymerization was used to synthesize starch-g-PMMA copolymers. The variables investigated in this research were the amount of starch in the reaction, length of illumination, type of photoinitiator, amount of photoinitiator, and synthesis without photoinitiator. Data was analyzed gravimetrically to determine the reaction yield and grafting efficiency. Gel permeation chromatography was used to analyze the relative molecular weights of homopolymer and copolymer. The highest grafting efficiency occurred at lower irradiation times without photoinitiator and at higher irradiation times for samples when uvinul?¥ 3048 is present. The highest relative molecular weights were seen at the lowest irradiation times in samples with and without photoinitiator. Because the lowest molecular weight and lowest grafting efficiencies occurred at high illumination times, this indicates that grafted and nongrafted chains are degrading in the presence of the UV light.