Ultraviolet‐radiation induced graft‐copolymerization of hydroxyethyl methacrylate onto cotton cellulose

Two‐hydroxyethyl methacrylate was grafted onto cotton cellulose using photoinitiation technique in the presence of the photoinitiator benzoin ethyl ether. Various parameters of the graft‐copolymerization reaction, namely time, temperature, initiator, and monomer concentrations, were optimized using the grafting bath containing 10% methanol/acetone to dissolve the photoinitiator. The cotton sample, preswollen in sodium hydroxide, was subjected to grafting under optimized conditions. The preswollen samples showed higher graft add‐on values at the equivalent monomer concentration. The moisture regain initially decreased at lower graft add‐on levels and increased marginally with higher graft add‐on. This behavior of the grafted substrate with respect to moisture regain has been explained.