Graft copolymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) onto the corn starch (CS) backbone was carried out in an aqueous medium using ceric ammonium nitrate as an initiator under nitrogen atmosphere. The weight ratio of CS/MMA varied with their composition, as 7/3, 6/4, 5/5, 4/6, and 3/7 were used in this study of the graft efficiency and graft percentage (GP); thus, five different GP CS-g-PMMA copolymers were obtained. The molecular weight of CS-g-PMMA copolymers were measured by using gel permeation chromatography. The structure of CS and CS-g-PMMA copolymer were confirmed by infrared spectra. CS and CS-g-PMMA copolymers were characterized by thermal gravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Horowitz-Metzger and Broido methods were applied to investigate the thermal decomposition kinetics of CS-g-PMMA copolymers. The effect of GP on the activation energy of decomposition, crystallization behavior, and morphology was investigated. In addition, the biodegradability of CS-g-PMMA films were also studied by a-amylase treatment with different times. The weight loss of CS-g-PMMA films after a-amylase treatment were calculated. Finally, the morphology of CS-g-PMMA films before and after a-amylase treatment were observed by SEM photograph. (C) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012