Radiation-induced grafting of diallyldimethylammonium chloride onto acrylic acid grafted polyethylene

Diallyldimethylammonium chloride (DADMAC) was grafted onto polyethylene (PE) films by a double grafting procedure. The PE film was initially modified by grafting acrylic acid (AA), through a mutual irradiation method. AA-g-PE film, thus obtained was subjected to subsequent radiation grafting reaction of DADMAC, to give a DADMAC-g-AA-g-PE film having a comb-type structure. The influence of different conditions, such as the extent of AA grafting, DADMAC concentration, absorbed dose and dose rate, on the grafting yield of DADMAC was investigated. A maximum DADMAC grafting of 30% was achieved. The equilibrium degree of swelling (EDS) of the grafted films were gravimetrically determined. TGA and FT-IR techniques were employed to characterize the grafted PE films.