Peroxide-initiated comonomer grafting of styrene and maleic anhydride onto polyethylene: Effect of polyethylene microstructure

Maleic anhydride has been grafted onto various polyethylenes (PEs) using 2,5-dimethyl-2,5-(di-t-butylperoxy)hexane as a free radical initiator in the presence of styrene as a comonomer. Three polyethylenes, differing systematically in their levels of terminal unsaturation and branching, were selected to investigate the effect of these microstructural characteristics on the course of both grafting and crosslinking. It was observed that when polyethylenes containing high levels of terminal unsaturation were reacted in the presence of peroxide or peroxide–maleic anhydride, crosslinking events were enhanced. When styrene was added as comonomer to the reaction medium to eliminate these undesirable side reactions, crosslinking was still observed with those polyethylenes that contained a high concentration of terminal unsaturation. This is attributed to a low reactivity between styrene and the allylic radical generated on the polyethylene backbone, which is believed to be responsible for the increased crosslinking. However, in the presence of high concentrations of styrene, crosslinking was eliminated for PEs containing high degrees of branching.