Date of Award

1-1-2019

Thesis Type

masters

Document Type

Thesis (Restricted Access)

Divisions

science

Department

Faculty of Science

Institution

University of Malaya

Abstract

Radical grafting of medium chain length poly-3-hydroxyalkanoates (mcl-PHA) with glycerol 1,3-diglycerolate diacrylate (GDD) in acetone was successfully carried out using benzoyl peroxide (BPO) as sole micro-initiator. A detail mechanism scheme provides significant improvement to previous literature. Radical-mediated grafting generated a-b carbon inter-linking of mcl-PHA and GDD resulted in macromolecular structure with gel properties. Thermal characterization distinguished the thermal properties of the copolymer for different graft yields as a function of initiator concentration, GDD monomer concentration, incubation period and temperature. The water absorption and porosity of the gel were significantly improved relative to neat mcl-PHA.

Note

Dissertation (M.A.) – Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 2019.

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