Preparation and property of poly(vinyl alcohol) grafted with butyl glycidyl ether

The crosslinked polyvinyl alcohol (CPVA) and alkyl chain grafted CPVA (CPVA‐g‐BGE) were prepared through the addition reaction of epoxy group of epichlorohydrin and butyl glycidyl ether (BGE) with the hydroxyl group of PVA. By FTIR and 1HNMR analysis, BGE was confirmed to be grafted onto the molecular chain of PVA successfully. By grafting with BGE, the area of the stress–strain curves of CPVA increased, and the elongation at break increased remarkably with little drop of the tensile strength. Much rougher fractured surface with folds was observed, indicating the increased toughness of CPVA. The relaxation peak corresponding to the glass transition temperature (Tg) of CPVA shifted to low temperature with increasing grafting ratio of BGE. When compared with CPVA, the crystallization ability of CPVA‐g‐BGE decreased, indicating that although the intermolecular hydrogen bonding of PVA was weakened by grafting with alkyl chain, appropriate intermolecular association of alkyl chain facilitated the formation of physical entanglement of molecular chains to strengthen and toughen the PVA matrix. Ink contact angles of CPVA‐g‐BGE decreased with increasing grafting ratio of BGE, indicating the increasing compatibility of CPVA with ink, which was advantageous for PVA to be used as surface sizing agent in papermaking. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013