Polymer Science and Technology

Biography

Wooseung Shin majored in Chemistry from Incheon National University in the Republic of South Korea. During his college years, he worked as an Intern Researcher at the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH) and conducted research on tire tread rubber. He is a graduate student in the Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering of Hanyang University, Republic of South Korea and also a Researcher in KITECH. He is currently studying SAP’s surface cross-linking processes to improve the absorption properties and permeability of the SAPs.

Abstract

Superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) are special polymeric materials that can absorb large amounts of water, saline solutions or physiological fluids as high as 10-1000 times their own weight due to a considerable number of hydrophilic groups in their structure. Recently, a major research trends of SAPs are the relaxation of the gel-blocking phenomenon. Surface cross-linking reduces gel-blocking and improves absorbency under load (AUL). In this study, surface cross-linking was achieved through thermal ring-opening reaction with ethylene glycol diglycidyl ether (EGDGE) as a cross-linking agent. We prepared carboxylated vinyl monomer based SAPs with comonomer. However, the SAPs have low absorption capacity under load (AUL) and low permeability. When EGDGE is used for surface cross-linking agent, the SAPs formed core-shell structure with different cross-linking densities between the exterior and interior. As a result, AUL and permeability of surface cross-linked SAPs were improved. We measured the absorption properties of the surface cross-linked SAPs according to the EGDGE input content, ratio of co-medium, reaction temperature and reaction time