Grafting of poly (2-Hydroxyethyl Methacrylate) onto chitin beads

Chitin was grafted with poly(2-hydroxyrthyl methacrylate) poly(HEMA) by using ceric ammonium nitrate (CAN) as the initiator. The effect of temperature, time, concentration of the monomer (HEMA), the amount of chitin beads and the initiator (CAN) concentration on the grafting yield has been studied under nitrogen atmosphere. The optimum conditions for the grafting process were established. The maximum grafting percentage of poly(HEMA) on to non porous chitin was found to be 65%, while for porous chitin beads it was 515%. The optimum conditions were 0.1 g of porous chitin beads, 8 mL (3.3 Mol/L) HEMA monomer, 0.5 g (4.6×10-2 mol/L) of CAN initiator for three hour reaction time at 35 °C. The products were characterized by FT-IR, SEM, C13 NMR and XRD analysis. Swelling and dissolution behavior of the products were followed in different buffer solutions (pH = 1, 7 and 11). Keywords: 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA), chitin, graft copolymerization, hydrogel, chitin bead.