Absorbent and super-absorbent materials
â– Everyday life has turned super-absorbent products into wizards of the polymer industry: thanks to them, we can fix water, aqueous solutions, oils, fatty substances and chemical products. They are used in a large number of sectors; in hospitals, they have become common objects to provide care and are used in surgery (drainage tubes, surgical drapes) or more generally in the health field (contact lenses, healing dressings for ulcers, controlled release of medication). The industrial sector uses a large volume of thickening, bonding, filming or dehydrating agents; they are used, for example, to refine and coat paper pulp, glue textiles and for emulsion polymerisation. Absorbent products are used in other applications in the building, environment, agricultural and horticultural sectors.
The survey makes a thorough state of the art report of existing super-absorbent materials and those being developed. A description of the main families of materials used is given: these are mainly natural polymers, based on cellulose or starch, which are used as they are or chemically modified (semi-synthetic), but also include synthetic resins. The survey precisely describes the use of these materials in all fields of application and provides data on the markets concerned. The full contact details of some 500 international players in the field are also provided.
- Publication: September 1998
- ISBN: 2-906024-49-X