Acrylic acid-starch graft copolymers production

The synthetic polyacrylates derived from acrylic acid, and the graft copolymers from starch and acrylic acid have emerged as the absorbent polymers of choice. This is in no small part due to economic factors, as a glance at any chemical marketing periodical will show acrylic acid as one of the least expensive water soluble monomers. In addition, the properties of acrylic acid make it relatively easy to polymerize, and to polymerize to products of high molecular weight. The importance of these latter properties will become clear in the next section. 

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