Pre-irradiation induced emulsion co-graft polymerization of acrylonitrile and acrylic acid onto a polyethylene nonwoven fabric

A pre-irradiation induced emulsion co-graft polymerization method was used to introduce acrylonitrile and acrylic acid onto a PE nonwoven fabric. The use of acrylic acid is meant to improve the hydrophilicity of the modified fabric. The kinetics of co-graft polymerization were studied. The existence of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and poly(acrylic acid) (PAAc) graft chains was proven by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis. The existence of the nitrile groups in the graft chains indicates that they are ready for further amidoximation and adsorption of heavy metal ions.