Cationic Pullulan via Poly(N-vinylimidazole) Grafting

In this thesis, the possibility of grafting poly N-Vinylimidazole (PNVI) onto pullulan was investigated under homogenous and heterogenous conditions using potassium persulphate (KPS) and cerium(IV) ammonium nitrate (CAN) as redox initiators. It was found out that grafting of PNVI onto pullulan was succesful under heterogeneous conditions using any one of the initiators, CAN or KPS. Pullulangraft- PNVI was obtained using 0.1000 g pullulan, 10 mL NVI , 0.5 g CAN at 60 C for one hour in 100 mL toluene under nitrogen atmosphere with a grafting yield of 103%. Another pullulan-graft-PNVI sample was obtained under similar conditions using 0.5 g KPS with 162% grafting yield. Aqueous homogeneous reaction medium was not suitable for PNVI grafting onto pullulan. Keywords: pullulan, graft copolymer, redox initiation, PNVI