Super Absorbent Polymers helps in the growth of Agricultural & Horticulture Applications

 

Super Absorbent Polymers

Super Absorbent Polymers are polymeric materials with high water absorbency, able to absorb 400-800 times their weight in water. SAP is commonly utilised in personal and hygiene items like as adult diapers, infant diapers, and sanitary napkins. Super Absorbent Polymers are most commonly used in diaper manufacture, but they also have agricultural applications.

When water-absorbing polymers are combined, they form hydrogels and absorb aqueous solutions through hydrogen bonding with water molecules. The capacity of a SAP to absorb water is determined by the ionic concentration of the aqueous solution. A SAP may absorb 300 times its weight (from 30 to 60 times its own volume) in deionized and distilled water and become up to 99.9 percent liquid, but in 0.9 percent saline solution, the absorbency declines to around 50 times its weight. [Citation required] The presence of valence cations in the solution makes it difficult for the polymer to interact with the water molecule.

The type and degree of cross-linkers utilised to form the gel influence the Super Absorbent Polymers overall absorbency and swelling capacity. Low-density cross-linked SAPs have a greater absorbent capacity and swell to a greater extent. These Super Absorbent Polymers have a softer and stickier gel structure as well. High cross-link density polymers have a reduced absorbent capacity and swell, and their gel strength is tougher, allowing them to keep particle form even under low pressure.

Super Absorbent Polymers are most commonly found in personal disposable hygiene items including infant diapers, adult diapers, and sanitary napkins.  Because of concerns about a relation to toxic shock syndrome in the 1980s, Super Absorbent Polymers was banned from usage in tampons. SAP is also used to prevent water penetration in underground power or communications cables, in self-healing concrete, horticulture water retention agents, spill and waste aqueous fluid control, and in motion picture and stage production fake snow. The first commercial application was in 1978 in Japan for feminine napkins and disposable bed liners for nursing home residents in the United States. Small regional diaper producers, as well as Kimberly Clark, were among the first to use the technology in the US market.

In the early 1960s, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) started researching materials to increase soil water conservation. They created a resin by grafting acrylonitrile polymer onto the backbones of starch molecules (i.e. starch-grafting). The hydrolyzed product of this starch-acrylonitrile co-polymer absorbed more than 400 times its weight in water. Furthermore, unlike fiber-based absorbents, the gel did not emit liquid water. The polymer became known as "Super Slurper." The USDA provided technical know-how to various US enterprises for the advancement of fundamental technologies. A variety of grafting combinations were tried, including work with acrylic acid, acrylamide, and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA).