Influence of physical parameters on mutual polymer grafting by electron beam irradiation

Grafting is a good method for modifying a polymer matrix and radiation induced grafting is an advantageous technique for chemical grafting because it does not require an initiator. In this work, mutual radiation grafting was performed and physical parameters like vacuum, pressure of air or inert gas and temperature were studied to verify their influences on styrene grafting onto hydrocarbon and fluorinated polymers. We observed that vacuum and temperature are determinant parameters to be considered in mutual radiation grafting besides the backbone polymer, monomer molecules and solvent. The optimization of these parameters for a specific polymer/monomer system contributes to a good performance and allows mutual radiation grafting to be an attractive technique even if it is performed in commercial accelerators.