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Surface modification of polypropylene by a combination of photooxidation and photosubstitution reactions
Author(s) -
Pasternak Mordechai
Publication year - 1995
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/app.1995.070571006
Subject(s) - polypropylene , wetting , amide , membrane , materials science , polymer chemistry , chemical engineering , polymerization , surface modification , contact angle , composite number , chemistry , organic chemistry , polymer , composite material , biochemistry , engineering
An efficient photoprocess has been developed to increase polypropylene surface wettability by insertion of acid, ester, and amide functionalities. A systematic study of polypropylene surface irradiations indicates that photoxidations always precede the photosubstitution reactions that occur at the carbonyl site to form carboxyl, ester, and amide groups. Irradiations with amines to form amide groups always achieved the highest level of wettability improvement without changing bulk morphology. This process may be very beneficial in facilitating the fabrication of composite membranes with hydrophilic barriers on top of a hydrophobic polymeric support such as polypropylene. The high chemical resistance of polypropylene matrix to various solvents makes the partially hydrophilized polypropylene an ideal membrane support when hydrophilic membrane barriers made by interfacial polymerization/crosslinking are needed for a variety of separation application. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.