Effect of Graft Yield on the Thermo-Responsive Permeability Through Porous Membranes with Plasma-Grafted Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)Gates

The effect of graft yield on both the thermo-responsive hydraulicpermeability and the therrno-responsive diffusional permeability through porous membranes withplasma-grafted poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) gates was investigated. Both thermo-responsiveflat membranes and core-shell microcapsule membranes with a wide range of graft yield of PNIPAM wereprepared using a plasma-graft pore-filling polymerization method. The grafted PNIPAM was formedhomogeneously throughout the entire thickness of both the flat polyethylene membranes and themicrocapsule polyamide membranes. Both the hydraulic permeability and the diffusional permeabilitywere heavily dependent on the PNIPAM graft yield. With increasing the graft yield, the hydraulicpermeability (water flux) decreases rapidly at 25℃ because of the decrease of the pore size;however, the water flux at 40℃ increases firstly to a peak because of the increase ofhydrophobicity of the pore surface, and then decreases and finally tends to zero because of the poresize becoming smaller and smaller. For the diffusional permeability, the temperature showsdifferent effects on the diffusional permeability coefficients of solutes across the membranes. Whenthe graft yield was low, the diffusional coefficient of solute across the membrane was higher attemperature above the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) than that below the LCST; however,when the graft yield was high, the diffusional coefficient was lower at temperature above the LCSTthan that below the LCST. It is very important to choose or design a proper graft yield of PNIPAMfor obtaining a desired thermo-responsive 'on/off' hydraulic or diffusional permeability.

Radiation Induced Grafting of Acrylic Acid onto Viscose Rayon Fabrics and Its After-Effects

Radiation induced grafting of various polymers with different monomers proved to be an attractive means to modify the physical or chemical properties of polymeric materials or textile fabrics. In the present work, radiation induced grafting of viscose rayon fabrics, consisting mainly of cellulose fibers, with acrylic acid monomer has been carried out. The grafting yields have been thoroughly studied as a function of different applied experimental parameters. The impact of the graft yield on the physical properties of the fabrics such as tensile strength, elongation, swelling, moisture absorption, crease recovery angle and also the dyeing properties of the fabrics has been studied. The effect of increasing the contact time of the fabric and monomer solution, at room temperature, after stopping irradiation has been studied in detail as well as the effect of temperature on the irradiated samples also after stopping irradiation. The best grafting yield was obtained on irradiating viscose rayon fabric in methanol-water solvent containing acrylic acid monomer, at a dose 20 kGys, then heating for 7 hours at 80℃ and finally keeping the samples at room temperature for about 20 hours. That treatment significantly increased the final graft yield.