Preparation and characterization of poly(methyl methacrylate) grafted sago starch using potassium persulfate as redox initiator

In this article, the graft copolymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) onto sago starch (AGU) was carried out in aqueous medium using potassium persulfate (PPS) under nitrogen gas atmosphere. The maximum percentage of grafting achieved was 90% under optimized conditions of reaction temperature, monomer, PPS, AGU, and reaction period corresponding to 50degreesC, 47 mmol, 1.82 mmol, 6.17 X 10(-3) mol L-1, and 1.5 h, respectively. The grafting of MMA onto sago starch was confirmed by the differences in infrared spectroscopy. The viscosity measurement and the average molecular weight determination were estimated using Huggin's and Mark Houwink's equations, respectively. This material may have application as a biodegradable plastic. (C) 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.