Super-absorbent polymers

US5496890A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• BAYER HEALTHCARE LLC · DE

Inventors

• Gu/ nter Sackmann · Leverkusen, DE
• Rolf-Volker Meyer · Krefeld, DE
• Siegfried Korte · Odenthal, DE
• Sergej Schapowalow · Neunburg vorm Wald, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Feb 21, 1995
• Grant date: Mar 5, 1996
• Expiry date: Feb 21, 2015

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y02A30/14
• WIPO field: Macromolecular chemistry, polymers
• WIPO sector: Chemistry

Abstract

A process for the production of super-absorbent polymers with a swelling capacity in water-containing liquids of up to 1,000 g/g in which aqueous emulsions of particularly high molecular weight polymers of acrylonitrile are partly hydrolyzed by reaction with aqueous solutions of alkali metal and/or alkaline earth metal hydroxides, the polymers are precipitated in powder form by addition of water-miscible organic solvents, separated off, dried and then optionally heated for a short time. The super-absorbent polymers are used as water-storing materials, for example in sanitary articles, in agriculture or in the sheathing of electrical cables.