Research Article
Balbir Singh Kaith, Rajeev Jin
Abstract
In this paper, hydrogel composed of acrylamide (AAm) and Gum ghatti was prepared under pressure by free radical initiation reaction using potassium persulphate (KPS)-ascorbic acid (ABC) redox pair as an initiator and N,N’-methylene-bis-acrylamide (MBA) as a crosslinker. Synthesized polymer was found to be pH, temperature and electrical stimulus sensitive. Various optimized reaction parameters were: reaction time (min), 180; amount of solvent (ml), 10; pH, 7.0; ABC:KPS (initiator ratio, mol:mol), 0.5:1.0; pressure (psi), 9.0; [AAm] (molL-1), 0.7042; [MBA] (molL-1), 0.0649. The synthesized superabsorbent was characterized using different characterization techniques like, FTIR, SEM, TGA/DTA/TDG and X-ray diffraction. Crosslinked network was found to be thermally more stable than the backbone. Swelling studies of candidate was done in the deionized water as a function of time, temperature and pH of swelling medium. Effect of electrical stimuli on the deswelling behavior of the candidate polymer was investigated in AC and DC voltage as a function of time of current flow and voltage applied