P. psyllium-g-polyacrylonitrile: synthesis and characterization

Abstract.

P. psyllium mucilage, an anionic natural polysaccharide consisting of pentosan and uronic acid obtained from the seeds of Plantago psyllium (Plantago family), was grafted with acrylonitrile (AN). Graft copolymers were prepared by grafting acrylonitrile onto P. psyllium mucilage (PSY) using ceric ion initiated solution polymerization technique for the very first time. The influence of varying concentration of (AN) and ceric ammonium nitrate (CAN) on graft copolymerization was studied. The percent grafting was found to be affected by the concentrations of AN and CAN in the reaction mixture. The prepared copolymers were not soluble in any common solvent or mixture of solvents. The prepared copolymers were characterized by FTIR.