ORIGINAL ARTICLE Corresponding Author Modification of Sucrose , S Stracture Via Ceric-Initiated Acrylonitrile Graft Polymerization

Abstract

ABSTRACT Graft copolymerization of acrylonitrile (AN) onto sucrose was carried out under argon atmosphere in a homogeneous aqueous medium by using ceric ammonium nitrate (CAN) as an initiator. The FTIR spectroscopy and thermo-gravimetric analysis and solubility characteristics of the products were used for confirming the graft copolymer formation. A tentative mechanism is proposed to explain the generation of radicals and the initiation. According to the empirical rates of the polymerization and the graft copolymerization of AN onto sucrose backbone, the overall activation energy of the graft copolymerization reaction was estimated to be 29.8 kJ/mol