Studies on grafting glycidyl methacrylate on polyvinyl chloride backbones

Graft copolymers of glycidyl methacrylate on polyvinyl chloride backbones were prepared by the free radical technique. Three types of backbones were used: ( 1 ) vinyl chloride homopolymer; ( 2 ) copolymer of vinyl chloride–vinyl acetate, 87:13; ( 3 ) copolymer of vinyl chloride–vinylidene chloride, 89:11. The grafting reactions resulted in products with lower intrinsic viscosities than the unreacted backbones. The graft copolymers were fractionated with the separation of glycidyl methacrylate homopolymers from the rest of the graft products. Unreacted backbones were separated through gelation of all the epirane‐bearing chains. Structure proof was conducted by chemical cleavage of the grafted side chains by reduction with LiAlH 4 and through acid hydrolysis.