Abstract: | Graft polymerization of methyl methacrylate onto acacia gum has been studied in detail. The grafting was found to be optimal under the following reaction conditions: gum at 0.4 g/dL, monomer at 7.52 × 10?;2 mol/dL, ceric ammonium sulfate at 15.81 × 10?;4 mol/dL, H2SO4 at 0.037 mol/dL, temperature at 50 °C and time at 3.0 h. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was sed for the confirmation of grafting. Thermal and physical properties of the copolymer were studied. A probable mechanism of polymerization has been suggested based on reaction kinetics. |