Abstract
Vinyl acetate, methyl methacrylate, alkyl acrylates, acrylonitrile, and acrylamide, were grafted onto nylon 6 fibers by the γ-ray pre-irradiation technique, and the effects of grafting on the microstructure and the mechanical properties of the graft copolymers were investigated. According to the analysis by wide-angle X-ray diffraction, the degree of crystallization decreased by increasing the percent graft of poly (vinyl acetate) in the grafted nylon 6 films. The mechanical parameters, such as the Young's modulus and the tensile strength at break, increased with increasing percent graft up to 50%. When persent grafting was smaller than 50%, rather homogeneous amorphous materials were obtained with vinyl acetate, while heterogeneous ones were obtained with other vinyl monomers. A poly (vinyl alcohol) grafted nylon 6 was obtained effectively by saponification of poly (vinyl acetate) grafted nylon 6, the former showing higher mechanical properties than the latter. Similar behavior was observed after saponification of the poly (methyl acrylate) grafted nylon 6.
