Chinese Journal of Applied Chemistry ›› 2017, Vol. 34 ›› Issue (3): 282-290.DOI: 10.11944/j.issn.1000-0518.2017.03.160237

• Full Papers • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Preparation and Swelling Properties of Carbon Nanotubes Composited Sodium Polyacrylate

ZHUANG Zhibo,NAN Zhaodong()   

  1. College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering,Yangzhou University,Yangzhou,Jiangsu 225002,China
  • Received:2016-06-06 Accepted:2016-09-14 Published:2017-02-27 Online:2017-02-27
  • Contact: NAN Zhaodong
  • Supported by:
    Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.212731796, No.21673204)

Abstract:

Carbon nanotubes(CNTs) composited sodium polyacrylate(PAA-Na) superabsorbent polymer was prepared by solution polymerization of acrylic acid(AA), where ammonium persulfate(APS) was used as an initiator, N,N'-methylene-bisacrylamide(MBA) as a crosslinker in the presence of carbon nanotubes. Effects of the amount of CNTs, initiator, crosslinker and the reaction temperature on water absorbency were studied. The results show that the synthetic resins have the best water absorbency when the mass ratio of the crosslinker to AA is 0.04%, the initiator to AA is 0.3%, the CNTs to AA is 0.3% and the reaction temperature at 75 ℃. After the addition of carbon nanotubes, the CNTs/PAA-Na shows rough surface and porous structure, which may lead to changes in water absorbency. The water absorbence and the swelling rate by the CNTs/PAA-Na are significantly improved than those by PAA-Na. The highest water absorbence of CNTs/PAA-Na reaches 1423 g/g and 104 g/g in distilled water and in saline water, respectively. The CNTs/PAA-Na composite maintains 76.0% of its water absorbency after repeated five times, and the water absorbent capacity is 1081.5 g/g .

Key words: solution polymerization, carbon nanotubes, sodium polyacrylate, swelling ratio