Chromatographic determination of residual monomers in starch-g-polyacrylonitrile and starch-g-polyacrylate.

Due to potential health hazards associated with residual monomers in food packaging films made by graft polymerization of thermoplastic polymers onto starch, a method is required to measure levels of these monomers. An RP-HPLC method for simultaneous determination of acrylonitrile (AN), acrylamide (AM) and acrylic acid (AC) was developed. The residual monomer AC was quantified in several industrial polymers as well as grafted copolymers (starch-g-polyacrylonitrile and starch-g-polyacrylate). Products of biodegradation of these copolymers were also identified.