Polyacrylonitrile-grafted Okra mucilage: A renewable reservoir to polymeric materials

In the present communication, the synthesis and characterization of a polysaccharide-based material is described. Okra mucilage, a water-soluble food grade polysaccharide, was grafted with polyacrylonitrile (PAN) using ceric ammonium nitrate/nitric acid redox initiator for modifying their properties for potential industrial applications. Ceric ion initiated solution polymerization under N2 atmosphere was found to be an efficient method for the formation of graft copolymers. The effect of variables such as the monomer concentration, initiator concentration, reaction time and temperature on the grafting efficiency (%GE) and percent grafting (PG) was discussed. Evidence of grafting was provided by the characterization of Okra mucilage and its graft copolymers by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscope (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns.