Grafting vinyl monomers onto silk fibers, VII. Graft copolymerization of methyl methacrylate onto silk using peroxydiphosphate as initiator

Graft copolymerization of methyl methacrylate onto silk was investigated in aqueous solution using potassium peroxydiphosphate as initiator. The rate of grafting was determined by varying monomer, peroxydiphosphate ion, temperature, and solvent. The graft yield increased with increasing peroxydiphosphate ion upto 8 × 10 −3 mol/1 and with further increase of peroxydiphosphate ion the graft yield decreased. The graft yield increased with increasing monomer concentration upto 9 wt.‐% and with further increase of monomer the graft yield decreased. The rate of grafting increased with the increase of temperature. The effect of acid and water soluble solvents and salts on graft yield was investigated and a suitable rate expression was derived.