A grafting copolymer (CPE-g-HEA)

composed of poly(2-hydroxy ethyl acrylate) (PHEA) as branched chains and chlorinated polyethylene (CPE) as backbone

was synthesized by in situ chlorinating graft copolymerization.No any initiator was added in the system.The process of in situ chlorinating graft copolymerization comes from continuously introducing chlorine gas into the reaction mixtures composed of only high-density polyethylene powder and a little amount of 2-hydroxy ethyl acrylate (HEA).When heated

a chlorine molecule decomposed into two chlorine radicals

which can lead to chlorination of PE

grafting of HEA to PE and homopolymerization of HEA as well.The structure of CPE-g-HEA was characterized by FT-IR

1H-NMR

GPC and WAXD.The results of FT-IR

1H-NMR and GPC indicated the existence of grafting copolymer of CPE-g-HEA.It can be found that the side chains of the copolymer were very short compared with those of HEA by bulk polymerization according to the GPC trace

and also the copolymer had more branches compared with the aqueous suspension graft system (CPE-g-MMA).