Study On Organic Resin/Silica Hybrid Superabsorbent Material

Superabsorbent polymer is a new functional materials which can absorb a large amount of water and the absorbed water is hardly removable even under some pressure. Because of these excellent characteristics, superabsorbent polymer is widely used in many fields. Organic-inorganic hybrid superabsorbent polymer is a new research orient one in this area. Using graft cellulose or co-polymer as an organic phase,SiO₂ from the TEOS precursor as an inorganic phase, three series of hybrid superabsorbent polymers such as graft HEC/SiO₂, graft CMC/SiO₂ and P(AM-co-AMPS)/SiO₂ were synthesized by situ-gel aqueous solution polymerization method. The diversification of the hydrophilic group was carried up by saponify-hydrolyzed, grafted or co-polymerized ways. The influence of synthetic condition on the distilled or salinity water absorbency of the materials and monomer fractional conversion were discussed systematically, and a suitable preparation conditions were determined. The water absorbency, salinity water absorbency and monomer fractional conversion of the graft cellulose HEC/SiO₂ superabsorbent series can reach 1300 g/g, 105 g/g and 80% respectively. Graft CMC/SiO₂ series 1295g/g , 105g/g and 85% and P(AM-co-AMPS)/SiO₂ series 1750 g/g , 103 g/g and 87% respectively. Based on the characterization of FTIR, SEM, XRD, EDS, transmissivity as well as measuring of the water absorbency, velocity of absorbency, capability of heat-resistance, capacity of water retaining and intensity of gel. It is found that the SiO₂ is dispersed in the organic matrix even, the gel intensity and heat-resistance of the materials is enhanced. The relationships among synthesizing -composing – structure -performance of the organic resin/ SiO₂ hybrid superabsorbent polymers were studied comprehensively. The absorbent cooperation mechanism between ionic and non-ionic hydrophilic group, and interaction of organic-inorganic network were also discussed in the paper. The influence of environmental conditions on the water absorbency of three series hybrid superabsorbent polymers was studied, which promote applications widely for these new superabsorbent materials.