Evonik Degussa Gmbh

Stockhausen Gmbh

Evonik Operations Gmbh

Evonik Corporation

Rüdiger Gerlach

Scott J Smith

Frank Loeker

Heinz Bremus

Gerd Jonas

Klaus Pflueger

The present invention relates to a process for the production of water-absorbing polymer structures, comprising the process steps of providing of an aqueous monomer solution comprising a polymerizable, monoethylenically unsaturated monomer (&#x3b1;1) carrying acid groups or a salt thereof; free-radical polymerization of the aqueous monomer solution to give a polymer gel, drying of the optionally comminuted polymer gel to give water-absorbing polymer structures, and surface post-crosslinking of the optionally ground and sieved water-absorbing polymer structures, wherein a thermoplastic polymer is added to the aqueous monomer solution before process step ii) or during process step ii), preferably before process step ii), or II) the polymer gel after process step ii) and before process step iv) or during process step iv), preferably before process step iv), or III) the water-absorbing polymer structure after process step iv).

Water-absorbing polymer structures produced using polymer dispersions

The invention relates to hydrophilic superabsorbent polymer comprising a) from about 55 to about 99.9 wt. % of polymerizable unsaturated acid group containing monomers; b) from about 0.001 to about 5.0 wt. % of internal crosslinking agent; c) from about 0.001 to about 5.0 wt. % of surface crosslinking agent applied to the particle surface; and d) wherein the composition has a degree of neutralization of more than about 20%, and from about 20 mole % to about 75 mole % of the unsaturated acid group containing monomers are neutralized with a first neutralizing agent, and from about 5 mole % to about 40 mole % of the unsaturated acid group containing monomers are neutralized with a second neutralizing agent; at a temperature of about 75&#xb0; C. or less. Such hydrophilic superabsorbent polymers have an Absorption Time of about 5+10 aminutes or greater, where a is the mean particle size of the superabsorbent material in millimeters, a capacity of about 15 g/g or greater, a Drop Penetration Value of about 2 seconds or less, and a floatability of 50% or less.

Superabsorbent polymer with slow absorption times

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Mülheim, Germany

Rüdiger Gerlach