Most superabsorbent polymers (SAP) are fully based on synthetic polymer (from petroleum resources) but costly, nondegradable, and environment-unfriendly. To overcome these disadvantages, biodegradable and renewable natural materials are suggested to be added into SAP. In this article, a new kind of SAP composites was synthesized by using AA, AM, α-cellulose, and modi ed-zeolite (MZE) as raw materials.The prepared novel SAP composite was analyzed by FTIR, XRD, SEM and TGA. Then, its water absorbency and water retention capacity were evaluated. The AA and AM were successfully grafted on αcellulose chains and the introduction of MZE as an inorganic ller which is uniformly dispersed in the SAP composite matrix, both resulting in more undulant and coarser surface with abundant hydrophilic groups for novel SAP composites. By contrast with poly(AA-co-AM), the water absorbency of prepared novel SAP composites is increased by 93.88% in distilled water and 89.58% in 0.9 wt.% NaCl solution, respectively. Meanwhile, the retained water time of these SAP composites is 11.2 hs evaluated at 50 °C, increasing the water retention capacity by 71.79%. Moreover, both T onset and T peak of prepared novel SAP composites are slightly increased compared with α-cellulose-poly(AA-co-AM), showing the introduction of MZE can slightly improve the thermal stability of novel SAP composites. The excellent water absorbency and retention capacity of novel SAP composites show it can be used as a water-keeping material for agricultural and horticulture applications.

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