Selective properties of polyester and cotton/polyester fabrics gamma radiation grafted with different binary mixtures of vinyl monomers

Radiation graft copolymerization of individual and comonomer mixtures of vinyl monomers onto polyester and cotton/polyester fabrics by the mutual method has been investigated. The effect of factors that may affect the grafting yield, such as solvent composition, comonomer mixture composition and radiation dose, have been examined. Suitable conditions that gives the highest graft yield without altering the original properties of the substrates are reported briefly. An attempt was made to determine the graft yield fraction from each monomer in the final graft copolymer in the case of grafting comonomer mixtures by using elemental analysis of nitrogen. Moreover, the results of elemental analysis were used to determine the reactivity ratios of the vinyl monomers. Some selective properties of the graft copolymers of polyester and cotton/polyester with the individual and comonomer mixtures have been investigated. The studied properties are the dye affinity for various dyestuffs and the mechanical properties in terms of tensile strength, elongation at break and Young's modulus. In general and regardless of the system used, grafting improves the dyeability of polyester and cotton/polyester with basic, vat, acid and disperse dyes. Also, it was found that improvement in dyeing and mechanical properties depends essentially on the composition of the graft copolymer and not on the composition of the feed comonomer solution or the total graft yield. © 1999 Society of Chemical Industry