Synthesis and Characterization of Water-Soluble Starch-Acrylamide Graft Copolymers

A series of water-soluble starch-polyacrylamide graft copolymers (ST-g-PAM) were prepared by Ce4+-initiated graft copolym-erizations of acrylamide (AM) onto starch (ST) dissolved in water at 30°C. The copolymers were found to contain 3-33% (wt) of ST. The structure of the copolymers, including the average number of grafts per chain and the efficiency of the initiator, was determined by acid-catalyzed degradation of the ST followed by size exclusion chromatography (SEC) analysis of the PAM chains and was found to be consistent with the presence or absence of free ST in the polymerization product prior to hydrolysis. The average number of grafts per starch molecule was found to be three or less, depending on conditions. The initiator efficiency (6–43%) was shown to decrease with increasing [Ce4+] and decreasing [AM], and this was found to be qualitatively in accord with the proposed mechanism of initiation and polymerization. The low efficiency was shown to be due, in part, to the low rate of reaction of Ce4+ compared to the polymerization rate. The copolymers were characterized by ultra-centrifugation, SEC, and viscometry.