Swelling Characterization of the Superabsorbent Copolymer in the Petroleum-Based Solvent-Water Mixtures

Abstract

The crosslinked and porous copolymer grains were synthesized by inverse suspension polymerization of acrylamide. The synthesized copolymer was characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). It was achieved to absorbed 418 g water by 1 g copolymer after 5 min waiting time. Moreover, it was seen that about 99% of water was absorbed by 1 g copolymer in the solvent water mixtures (300 mL solvent–200 mL distilled water) after 2.5 min waiting time. The diffusion coefficients of the copolymer in the solvent-water mixtures were found between 8.87 · 10⁴ and 10.64 · 10⁴ cm²s⁻¹. Furthermore, the copolymer in distilled water achieved to reach a high value of the diffusion coefficient (13.2 · 10⁴ cm²s⁻¹).

Keywords:

• Swelling
• superabsorbent polymer
• diffusion
• water absorption
• solvent-water mixtures