The carboxymethylated derivatives of starch (CMS) and cellulose (CMC) were used for film preparation. The infrared spectroscopy revealed that crosslinking via ester bridges with citric acid occurred between the two polysaccharide derivatives. The effect of polysaccharide derivatives ratio on physicochemical properties of prepared films was evaluated. Generally, the values of tested parameters (moisture absorption, surface roughness, and mechanical and thermal properties) were between the values noted for neat CMS or CMC-based films. However, the physicochemical properties of the system with equal CMS/CMC weight ratio diverged from this trend, i.e., the highest tensile strength, the highest Young’s modulus (ca. 3.4 MPa and ca. 4.9 MPa, respectively), with simultaneously the lowest moisture absorption (18.5% after 72 h) have been noted. Such systems could potentially find application in agriculture or pharmacy.

Starch graft copolymers as superabsorbents obtained via reactive extrusion processing: Starch graft copolymers have been obtained via grafting of acrylic monomers i.e. acrylamide (AAm) and acrylic acid (AA) during the reactive extrusion processes. 2,2'-azobis (2-methylpropionamidine) dihydrochloride (AAPH) was used as a radical initiator and N'N-methylenebisacrylamide (MBA), mixture of pentaerythritol triacrylate and pentaerythritol tetraacrylate (trade name PETIA) and alkoxylated pentaerithritol acrylate (trade name Ebecryl 40) were applied as acrylic crosslinkers. The obtained materials were characterized by FTIR and their water sorption properties investigated using swelling (vol. %) and sorption (wt. %) tests. Sorption of water into these graft copolymer samples reached values of ca. 6-13 g of water per g of dry materials. It was also found that water sorption values were dependent on ratio of AAm and AA as well as on a type of the applied crosslinking agent.

Cross-linked potato starch (StMBA) and starch-g-polyacrylamide materials with a high content of natural polymer from 60 to 90 wt.% (St60–St90) were synthesized by double chemical-chemical modification (grafting and cross-linking). Eco-friendly starch absorbents were tested for removal of Cu²⁺ and Fe³⁺ from aqueous solutions. The characteristics of the obtained materials (Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermal analysis (TGA), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and laser scanning microscopy (LSM)) confirmed their diversity in terms of composition and structure. The effect of N,N’-Methylenebisacrylamide (MBA) and polyacrylamide (PAM) content in the starch graft copolymers, treatment time and concentration of metal ions on adsorption efficiency were investigated. The adsorption efficiency for StMBA was 14.0 mg Cu²⁺/g and 2.9 mg Fe³⁺/g, regardless of the initial concentration of ions, whereas for starch graft copolymer St60 it was 23.0 mg Cu²⁺/g and 21.2 mg Fe³⁺/g. Absorption of Fe(III) was persisted even after 2 days. Pseudo-second order model was used to investigate the adsorption mechanisms. It was found that in addition to the chemical adsorption of ions on the surface, there is sorption inside the polymer network and chelating mechanism may dominate. Satisfactory results were attributed to the adequate grafting of PAM onto starch, the ability to form complexes with metal cations and changes in material structure.

In this paper, epoxy-acrylate structural adhesives tapes (SATs) were obtained from Bisphenol A-based liquid epoxy resin and epoxy acrylic resins (EARs). A new method of EARs preparation, i.e., the free radical bulk photopolymerization process (FRBP), was studied in detail. The influence of methacrylic monomers (methyl methacrylate, ethyl methacrylate, butyl methacrylate, lauryl methacrylate, (2-acetoacetoxy)ethyl methacrylate) and vinyl monomers (N-vinylpyrrolidone and styrene) on the FRBP process of base monomers (i.e., butyl acrylate, glycidyl methacrylate and 2-hydroxyethyl acrylate) was investigated. The kinetics of photopolymerization process was monitored by photo-differential scanning calorimetry method. The properties of the obtained EARs (viscosity and average molecular weights), as well as monomers conversion using ¹H NMR, were determined. It was revealed that styrene significantly decreases the photopolymerization rate and increases the final monomers conversion (+27%). However, the resulting tetrapolymers BA-co-GMA-co-HEA-co-STY have low molecular weights and low polydispersity (2.2). Methacrylate monomers with shorter aliphatic chains (<C₄) also decrease the rate of photopolymerization due to the length of the aliphatic chain increasing. Surprisingly, the best results of adhesion to steel and shear strength were obtained for SAT based on epoxy acrylate resin with styrene (11 N/25 mm and 20.8 MPa, respectively). However, the thermomechanical properties of SAT with styrene were weaker than those with methacrylates.