A Review on the Synthesis, Characterization, and Modeling of Polymer Grafting

A critical review on the synthesis, characterization, and modeling of polymer grafting is presented. Although the motivation stemmed from grafting synthetic polymers onto lignocellulosic biopolymers, a comprehensive overview is also provided on the chemical grafting, characterization, and processing of grafted materials of different types, including synthetic backbones. Although polymer grafting has been studied for many decades-and so has the modeling of polymer branching and crosslinking for that matter, thereby reaching a good level of understanding in order to describe existing branching/crosslinking systems-polymer grafting has remained behind in modeling efforts. Areas of opportunity for further study are suggested within this review.

Automated summary

This critical review focuses on the synthesis, characterization, and modeling of polymer grafting, pointing out that there is room for further research in this area despite existing understanding and efforts.