| abstract |
The invention concerns water-absorbent cellular crosslinked-polymer materials produced by (I) foaming a polymerizable aqueous mixture containing: (a) acid-group-containing monoethylenically unsaturated monomers which have been neutralized to at least 50 mol %; (b) optionally, other monoethylenically unsaturated monomers; (c) crosslinking agents; (d) initiators; (e) 0.1 to 20 % by wt. of at least one surfactant; (f) optionally, at least one solubilizer and (g) optionally, thickeners, foam stabilizers, polymerization-control agents, fillers and/or cell-nucleation agents, the foaming being carried out by dispersing throughout the mixture fine bubbles of a gas which is inert to radicals, and (II) polymerizing the foamed mixture to form a cellular hydrogel and adjusting the water content of the cellular hydrogel to 1 to 45 % by wt. The invention also concerns methods of producing such polymer materials and their use in personal-hygiene articles used to absorb body fluids and in bandage material used to cover injuries. |