Polymer Swelling/Molecular-Structure Relationships

The important physical properties of absorbent polymers are dependent on the precise structure of the polymer network. Of key importance for use in personal care applications are the equilibrium swelling capacity, the rate of swelling and the modulus of the swollen gel. Molecular theories of rubber elasticity describe the relationship between the molecular structure of a crosslinked polymer and the amount of swelling and elastic modulus which result. These theories are therefore more useful to the synthetic polymer chemist than are the scaling theories of rubber elasticity. 

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