Electron microscopical examinations of grafted nitrocellulose

A series of nitrocellulose specimens grafted with methyl methacrylate in homogeneous and heterogeneous media have been examined using electron microscopy. The observations from scanning and transmission electron microscopy demonstrated that the homogeneous grafting changed not only the morphological structure of the surface layer of the supermolecular structure of nitrocellulose but also its internal character, as well as promoting greatly the uniform distribution of grafted polymer over the whole mass of nitrocellulose substrate, and hence decreasing order. X-ray diffraction studies provided further evidence for this view. Conversely, the electron micrographs disclosed that the heterogeneous grafting only altered the surface morphology of nitrocellulose flake. In addition, the difference of morphological structure between the surface layer and the interior of the supermolecular structure of a homogeneous graft has also been revealed and is discussed briefly in this study.