why is polyacrylamide hydrogel cant be considered as superabsorbent polymer while copolymer polyacrylamide can be considered superabsorbent polymer?
Light crosslinked Polyacrylamide gel is flexible enough to swell in water.
However:
-the functional groups in the polymer chain should undergo protonation/deprotonation at mild conditions, commonly in aqueous media.
- The similar ions on the polymer chains repelling each other help the gel to expand and uptake enough solution.
- In addition, there should be a driving force to uptake the solvent to higher extents. The driving force is provided by addition of a salt in to the polymer matrix. When water diffuses into the gel, dissolution of the salt results in osmotic pressure. This pressure acting as a driving force uptakes much more water.
To give these characteristics/features to polyacrylamide gel it should be co-polymerized with other monomers such as acrylic acid.
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