Hydrogels are a very useful type of polymeric material in several economic sectors, acquiring great importance due to their potential applications; however, this type of material, similarly to all polymers, is susceptible to degradation, which must be studied to improve its use. In this sense, the present work shows the degradation phenomena of commercial hydrogels based on potassium and sodium polyacrylate caused by the intrinsic content of different types of potable waters and aqueous solutions. In this way, a methodology for the analysis of this type of phenomenon is presented, facilitating the understanding of this type of degradation phenomenon. In this context, the hydrogels were characterized through swelling and FTIR to verify their performance and their structural changes. Likewise, the waters and wastewaters used for the swelling process were characterized by turbidity, pH, hardness, metals, total dissolved solids, electrical conductivity, DLS, Z-potential, and UV-vis to determine the changes generated in the types of waters caused by polymeric degradation and which are the most relevant variables in the degradation of the studied materials. The results obtained suggest a polymeric degradation reducing the swelling capacity and the useful life of the hydrogel; in addition, significant physicochemical changes such as the emergence of polymeric nanoparticles are observed in some types of analyzed waters.

Several hydrogels were synthesized by free-radical polymerization in an aqueous medium based on potato starch (PS), poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), and N,N'-Methylenebisacrylamide (MBAm), being possible to study these hydrogels as a function of the proportion of components incorporated. In this way, the products generated from the synthesis were characterized by swelling and deswelling kinetics, the first swelling being verified with Schott and statistical models, allowing to contrast the proximity between the experimental and theoretical behavior. Additionally, spectroscopy (FTIR), morphological (SEM), and thermal (TGA and DSC) analysis allowing to know the intrinsic characteristics of the material, increasing in general terms the knowledge of this type of material. In this context, it was possible to verify the characteristics and effectiveness of the synthesis and crosslinking of the main components. The experimental results obtained show that the synthesized hydrogels present representative first swellings consistent with kinetic and statistical models; however, there are significant changes in the second swelling derived from polymer degradation that occurs during the same swelling/deswelling cycles processes.