| Abstract: | In order to elucidate the termination mechanism in the graft copolymerization of methyl methacrylate to unreduced and reduced wool fibers, graft copolymers were prepared by means of the LiBr–K2S2O8 redox sytem without homopolymer or with K2S2O8 only with homopolymer at 30°C. The graft polymers (PMMA) were isolated almost completely from the wool trunk by an HCI-digestion method, leaving a few amino acid residues on the end of the graft polymers. Dinitrophenylation of the isolated polymer was carried out by various methods. The spectral features were almost the same as for dinitrophenylated amino acids of the usual type such as valine, leucine, and methionine, with a maximum in ultraviolet light at 340–345 mμ. From colorimetric analysis of the number of dinitrophenylated amino acid endgroups and the measurement of the average molecular weight of the isolated polymers, the number of amino acid endgroups linked to the graft polymers was calculated to be about one and two per polymer chain in reduced and unreduced wool, respectively, independent of the reaction system, graft-on, and molecular weight of graft polymers. From these facts, it was suggested that the most of isolated polymers are the truly grafted polymers. Also, the termination reactions have been explained as follows. In the unreduced wool, the restriction of mobility of the radical end might be expected, for the confinement of growing chains in wool fibers. This would be favorable to termination by recombination rather than by the disproportionation, since the former has a lower activation energy than the latter. Thus, the formation of intra- or intermolecular crosslinks might be considered between polypeptide chains. On the other hand, in the reduced wool, the mobility of graft polymers might be considered to be greater than that of unreduced wool because of its open structure. Therefore, termination would be principally by disproportionation between graft polymer radicals. |
