Kinetics of radiation‐induced graft copolymerization of 2‐hydroxyethyl methacrylate onto polyethylene membranes

The kinetics of radiation‐induced graft copolymerization of 2‐hydroxyethyl methacrylate onto polyethylene membranes in ethanol has been studied with radiation sources of cobalt‐60. The influences of concentration of monomer, dose rate, and temperature on grafting rate were investigated. The results show the following functional relationship equations: dG0/dt ∝ [M]0 and dG0dt ∝ Ḋ1/2. The apparent activation energy and the collision frequency factor of the grafting copolymerization are 8.0 kcal/mol and 1.505 × 107 G% h−1/2 Mrad−1/2 mol−1 L, respectively. The work established that the relationship of the grafting rate constant k with the temperature relational expression at arbitrary temperature: in k = 16.5269 − 4026(1/T).