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Proton exchange membranes prepared by simultaneous radiation grafting of styrene onto poly(tetrafluoroethylene‐ co ‐hexafluoropropylene) films. I. Effect of grafting conditions
Author(s) -
Nasef Mohamed Mahmoud,
Saidi Hamdani,
Nor Hussin Mohd
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-4628(20000411)76:2<220::aid-app11>3.0.co;2-m
Subject(s) - tetrafluoroethylene , hexafluoropropylene , grafting , styrene , polymer chemistry , materials science , monomer , membrane , copolymer , chemical engineering , solvent , proton , chemistry , polymer , composite material , organic chemistry , biochemistry , physics , quantum mechanics , engineering
The simultaneous radiation grafting of styrene onto poly(tetrafluoroethylene‐ co ‐hexafluoropropylene) (FEP) films was studied at room temperature. The effects of grafting conditions (type of solvent, irradiation dose, dose rate, and monomer concentration) were investigated. The degree of grafting was found to be dependent on the investigated grafting conditions. The dependence of the initial rate of grafting on the dose rate and the monomer concentration was found to be of 0.5 and 1.3 orders, respectively. The results suggest that grafting proceeds by the so‐called front mechanism in which the grafting front starts at the surface of the film and moves internally toward the middle of the film by successive diffusion of styrene through the grafted layers. Some selected properties of the grafted films were evaluated in correlation with the degree of grafting. We found that the grafted FEP films possess good mechanical stability, which encourages their use for the preparation of proton exchange membranes. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 76: 220–227, 2000