Study of the effect of addition of 2-Acrylamido Methyl Propane Sulfonic Acid as comonomer in hydrolyzed starch-gpoly acrylonitrile and on performance of Water Absorbancy

Abstract

The graft polymerization of Acrylonitrile on to starch is carried out in water with ceric initiation and can produce a graft copolymer that is composed of about 50% by weight of Poly Acrylonitrile. Hydrolysis of Starch-g- Poly Acrylonitrile in aqueous alkali converts the nitrile substituents of Poly Acrylonitrile to a mixture of alkali metal carboxylate and carboxamide and affords a polymer that exists in water as a highly swollen but largely insoluble gel. In a different studies, some researchers found that highly absorbent copolymers containing starch and Acrylonitrile can be prepared in which the nitrile substituents are left unconverted, provided that a suitable co monomer such as 2-Acrylamido Methyl Propane Sulfonic Acid is polymerized, along with the Acrylonitrile. The work has been carried out under dissertation work of M. E. Programme at Ahmedabad Textile Industries Research Association (ATIRA), Ahmedabad. During our work we have found that presence of AMPS affects not only the swellability of polymer in water but its solubility also. So at certain composition the polymer solubility is remarkable. In the full paper we will focus on this remarkable characteristic of the starch grafted polymer.