A new synthesis method of pH-response superabsorbent hydrogels (SHG) was achieved by direct ultraviolet (UV) photopolymerization, and in particular, the synthesis of SHGs of acrylic acid (AA), sodium acrylate (AANa), and methacrylcholine chloride (MACC) tricomponent copolymer by UV photopolymerization were investigated. The pH value responsive behavior of SHG with different monomer ratios of MACC and AA was researched, and SHG showed large swelling properties at pH value approximately 7. Influences of monomer ratio (mol) of AANa to AA, photoinitiators, crosslinking agents, and exposure time of UV light on the water absorbent properties were studied. The results showed that the water absorbent capacity of SHG based on photoinitiators:Esacure KTO46 or Irgacure 651 can reach comparatively high, N,N 0 -Methylene bisacrylamide and diethylene glycol diacrylate (DEGDA) were high efficient crosslinking agents for its crosslinking the molecular chains through attending the copolymerization with monomers. When the exposure time was 10 min, the distilled water absorbency of SHG was 1503 mL/g under the condition: content of MACC, 14.3 wt %; monomer ratio (mol) of AANa to AA: 5.67; content of DEGDA and Irgacure 651, 0.0025 and 0.25 wt %.
Synthesis of superabsorbent hydrogel (SAHG) of acrylic acid-potassium acrylate copolymer by direct Ultraviolet (UV) photopolymerization is a new method. The effects of degree of neutralization of acrylic acid (AA), photoinitiators, crosslinking agents, and exposure time of UV light on water absorbent properties were investigated. The results showed that the water absorbency (Q) and the salt solution (NaCl, 0.9%) absorbency (Qs) of SAHG, based on Irgacure 651, are high, reaching about 1400 and 130 mL/g, respectively. UV absorption spectrum proved that peak of UV absorption of Irgacure 651 matched the UV light source we used. Among the crosslinking agents, N,NЈ-methylene bisacrylamide is more efficient than others, because of its very small content and high Q.13 C NMR spectrometry was used to identify the mechanism of crosslinking reaction through esterification of hydroxyethyl acrylate (HEA) and 2-hydroxypropyl acrylate (HPA) with carboxylic acid group in acrylic acid-ammonium acrylate copolymerization, but efficiency of crosslinking reaction by esterification was lower than that of copolymerization of vinyl group in crosslinking agent. The Q of acrylic acidpotassium acrylate copolymer of SAHG reaches 1592 mL/g under the following conditions: degree of neutralization of acrylic acid is 80%, content of Irgacure 651 is 0.25 wt %, content of HEA is 0.2 wt %, and exposure time is 10 min.
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