| abstract |
The hydrogel-forming absorbent polymeric material comprises aggregates of water-insoluble, hydrogel-forming absorbent polymer particles chemically bonded to the porous interparticle crosslinked macrostructure by an interparticle crosslinking agent reacted with the particles in an amount of 0.01 to 30 parts by weight per hundred parts by weight to form crosslinking particles. binding between particles in aggregates. The described dry volume of the resulting porous macrostructure is greater than or equal to 10.0 mm 3 and the pores between adjacent particles in the macrostructure are interconnected by interconnecting channels. In the process, an interparticle crosslinking agent is applied to the polymer particles in an amount of from 0.01 to 30 parts by weight per hundred parts by weight, the polymer particles being brought into physical association to form an aggregate having pores bonded to each other by interconnecting channels, and the interparticle crosslinking agent being left react with the polymer in the aggregate at a temperature of from 120 ° C to 300 ° C for a period of from 5 minutes to 6 hours while maintaining the physical association of the particles in the aggregate to form crosslink bonds between the particles to form an interparticle crosslinked macrostructure. |