Graft polymerization of glycidylmethacrylate onto coralline hydroxyapatite

Graft polymerization of glycidylmethacrylate (GMA) onto coralline hydroxyapatite (CHA) was carried out using potassium persulfate (K2S2O8) and sodium metabisulfite (Na2S2O5) as initiators in aqueous medium. To optimize the reaction conditions for getting maximum grafting yield, the concentrations of backbone, monomer, initiator, temperature and time were varied. The percent grafting was found to increase initially and then gradually decrease with respect to reaction parameters. The results obtained imply that the optimum temperature and time was 60 degrees C and 180 min, respectively, to obtain higher grafting yield. The grafting results have been discussed and a mechanism involved in the grafting of GMA onto CHA is described. The grafted materials were analyzed with Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements. The results of FT-IR confirmed the presence of epoxy group on the grafted CHA. The XRD pattern showed that there was no secondary phase in the apatite lattice due to chemical modification.