Preparation of superabsorbent polymer based on biomass materials

Abstract

Superabsorbent polymer (SAP) is a hydrophilic polymer having a three-dimensional network structure, and is a substance capable of absorbing water up to several hundred times its original mass. Acrylic acid, which is most widely used in SAP, has high absorption properties, but has the disadvantage of inducing skin diseases and not being degraded. In order to solve this problem, many studies have been conducted on various bio-based materials that can be applied to SAP. Itaconic acid is a substance produced by fermentation of sugar cane, which has a vinyl group and carboxyl group and can replace acrylic acid. In addition, a study was conducted to improve the absorption properties through the copolymerization of SAP. In this paper, we improved the absorption properties of itaconic acid-based SAP through a copolymerization of itaconic acid, acrylic acid and additional monomers. It was confirmed that polymerization of SAP was well performed using FT-IR and 13C-NMR analysis. The surface structure of SAP was confirmed via SEM analysis and the thermal properties were confirmed by TGA analysis.