Faced with an impending meltdown, and lacking swimming attire and a swim diaper, she sent her husband off to buy a towel in the gift shop and stripped her son down to his disposable diaper. But ultra-absorbent polymers, also known as hydrophilic polymers, are among the coolest of polymers, and their applications go far beyond some fun and a dry bottom. Hydrophilic polymers can absorb water equivalent to hundreds of times their own weight. From that rather high-tech process come some visually captivating results.
Check out the embedded video for an example of how a miniscule amount of powdered polymer can absorb a relatively huge amount of water and become a gel. Disposable diapers are, perhaps, the most well-known application of ultra-absorbent polymers.
Yet the applications for these amazing polymers are many, spanning virtually every industry. Farmers first began to use these polymers as a way to help soil retain more water. In fact, more than two-thirds of hydrophilic or water-soluble polymers used in industry are derived from polymers of natural origin, so coming from renewable resources harvested crops, trees, waste animal products and so on , rather than petrochemical sources of finite availability. Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
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