Abstract: Cellulose based oil absorbing resins were prepared via grafting cotton pulp with poly(butyl methacrylate), and were characterized using FTIR, XRD, SEM, TG, and DSC. Effects of the pre-process of the base cotton pulp and the condition of graft copolymerization were investigated, the found optimal preparation procedure was: the cotton pulp was first activated with a 0.15mol/LHNO3 solution containing ceric ion at 45℃ for 2.5h, then grafted with butyl methacrylate at 50℃ for 24h in presence of a crosslinker N,N′-methylene-bis-acrylamide. The weight ratios of cellulose/ initiator /monomer/ crosslinker should be 1/0.03/1.5/0.03. Based above conditions, high graft rates could be reached and resulting in excellent oil-absorbing property.

Key words: cellulose, butyl methacrylate, grafting, oil absorbing resin