A mixture of acrylonitrile (AN) and itaconic acid (IA) was cografted onto polypropylene (PP) nonwoven fabrics by preirradiation method. The effects of graft polymerization conditions such as temperature, reaction time, Mohr's salt concentration, solvent mixture ratio, and comonomer composition on the total grafting yield were investigated. The addition of AN as a comonomer increased the amount of IA that reacted with PP fabrics. An increase in the temperature from 40 to 60 degrees C increased the grafting rate, but the final grafting yield decreased at high temperature. The addition of 0.01 wt % Mohr's salt to the reaction medium leaded to a sharp increase of grafting yield. The accelerative effect of solvent medium on the grating yield was higher in dimethylformamide (DMF) and methanol mixtures, when compared with DMF or methanol. Chelating fabrics was synthesized by subsequent amination of grafted fabric with ethylene diamine (EDA) and phenylhydrazine (PH). The conversion yield reached maximum value at about 90% for 80% PP-g-AN-IA fabrics at 90 degrees C. At same amination conditions, the conversion yield is higher when PP-g-AN-IA fabrics react with EDA compared with PH. FT-IR data indicate that amine groups were introduced onto PP-g-AN-IA fabric through amide linkage between grafted AN or IA and EDA or PH. (C) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 119: 3483-3489, 2011