Grafting of Polyacrylonitrile Onto Luffa Cylindrica Via In-Situ Polymerization

In this study, to develop new polymeric materials for cellulose-based environmental applications, graft copolymerization of acrylonitrile (an) monomer on chemically modified luffa cylindrica (lc) fibers have been studied# lc fibers were modified by scouring and alkaline treatment to partially remove the lignin, hemicelluloses, and other residues from the fibers' surface# the modified lc was silylated by using 3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl methacrylate (mps)# polyacrylonitrile was chemically grafted onto the cellulosic material surface by solution polymerization of an with mps-modified lc fibers# the grafted lc fibers were characterized by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ftir) and x-ray diffraction (xrd) analyses# the grafting of polyacrylonitrile onto lc fibers was confirmed by appearance of a new peak at 2240 cm-1 corresponding to nitrile group (c≡n) and reduction of crystallinity index of fibers after copolymerization#