| Summary: | Superabsorbent polymer from waste polystyrene-graft-polyacrylamide was synthesized through emulsion polymerization technique using acrylamide as a monomer and potassium persulphate as an initiator in the presence of N,N'-methylenebisacrylamide (NMBA) as a crosslinking agent. The effects of acrylamide loading was investigated to obtain the optimum condition that shows the best swelling capacity in three different aqueous medium; distilled water, saline solution and urea solution. Superabsorbent hydrogel were characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and electron scanning microscopy (SEM). Swelling test showed optimum absorbencies for distilled water, saline and urea solution were 1230 wt%, 1160 wt% and 440 wt% from their dry weight, respectively, recorded at ratio 1:10 of waste polystyrene to acrylamide. Meanwhile, the IR Spectroscopy proves that the grafting process between acrylamide and waste polystyrene was occurred in the hydrogel. Thermal degradation of the hydrogel started at 350°C and the existence of porous unit can be observed in SEM micrographs. © (2013) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland.
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