Abstract
Polyethylene terephthalate fibers (Tetoron) imbibing solutions of various catalysts (K2S2O8, (NH4)2S2O8, H2O2, BPO and AIBN) were heated with styrene in the air in sealed tubes. When the solvent of K2S2O8 and (NH4)2S2O8 was water the grafting proceeded only slightly, but when solvent was a water-methanol mixture the grafting proceeded to a considerable extent. In the cases of H2O2 the grafting proceeded smoothly even when the imbibing solvent was water. The fibers imbibing methanol solutions of AIBN could also be grafted with relatively high efficiencies.
Dried fibers imbibing catalysts were heated with pure styrene or styrene-methanol mixtures, but the degree of grafting was low. Generally the graft efficiency of styrene onto the polyester fiber was lower than those onto cellulose, polyvinyl alcohol, nylon and polyvinyl chloride fibers. Behaviors of the grafting onto Vycron fiber were similar to those onto Tetoron fiber.
The graft polymerization of vinyl acetate onto the polyester fibers was also investigated, but no desirable results were obtained. The difficulty of the grafting onto the polyester fibers may be mainly due to difficulty of penetration of the catalysts and/or the monomers into the fibers.
