Surface Photografting Polymerization of Methyl Methacrylate in <TOGGLE>N</TOGGLE>,<TOGGLE>N</TOGGLE>-dimethylformamide on Low Density Polyethylene Film

Summary: It was found that without additional photoinitiator, methyl methacrylate (MMA) dissolved in common solvent N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) could be photografted steadily on low-density polyethylene (LDPE) film surface under UV irradiation. In short irradiation time (4 min) and at room temperature, high grafting efficiency (approaching 100%) and remarkable graft polymer amount (grafting percent is about 4.6%) was obtained. The possible reaction mechanism was based on the photosensitivity of DMF, which induced this photografting polymerization. This finding is useful to develop photoinitiator-free grafting or photopolymerization system. Using SEM, special discrete globular structure was found on the MMA-grafted LDPE film surface, and a possible model was proposed to interpret it. <GRAPHIC NAME="gra001" COPYRIGHT="WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH" ERIGHTS="1" LOC="FIXED"></GRAPHIC>