Preparation and Characterization of Starch-g-Polymethacrylamide Copolymers

In this article, methacrylamide was successfully grafted onto starch using benzoyl peroxide as a radical initiator in aqueous medium. The extent of grafting was found to be affected by the initiator, monomer, starch concentration, and temperature. The optimum initiator concentration is 2.0×10⁻³ mol/L. The graft yield was observed to increase with the monomer concentration and temperature. No optimum values for the monomer concentration and temperature were found. The overall activation energy for graft copolymerization was obtained. The grafted starches were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). TGA thermograms showed that the thermal stability of starch increased as a result of grafting. SEM micrographs showed that the granular structure of starch was not maintained after graft copolymerization. The water uptake and moisture retainment values of starch graft copolymers were investigated.