Plasma induced graft polymerization of acrylic acid onto poly(ethylene terephthalate) monofilament

Abstract

9-14The graft polymerization of acrylic acid has been carried out on poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) monofilament to introduce carboxylic acid groups. The filament is treated with oxygen plasma for the introduction of peroxides and subsequently grafted with acrylic acid. The influence of monomer concentration, plasma exposure time and reaction temperature on the degree of grafting has been investigated. The grafted filament is subsequently immobilized with chitosan. ATR-FTIR confirms the immobilization of chitosan. The contact angle decreases from 72° for virgin PET to 38° for 180s plasma exposured sample, 42° for the grafted and 36° for the chitosan immobilized sample which shows significant improvement in the wettability. The surface topography of filaments is characterized by atomic force microscopy