Super slurper

Super slurper Supersonic aircraft fuel Supertarget Super three SUPERTRAP Supplies... 

A recently developed class of compounds called Super Slurpers based on starch- polyacrylonitrile copolymers are able to absorb as much as 500 to 1000 times their weight of water, depending on the purity of the water (19, 20, 21). The formation of these copolymers is catalyzed by Ce ion. These polymers were developed by the U.S, Department of Agriculture and have potential agricultural uses as water storage additives as well as obvious consumer and industrial applications. 

The water absorption properties of cellulose may be increased by grafting on polar groups, such as carboxyl groups, as in Super Slurpers, and this absorption may be decreased by the introduction of nonpolar moieties, such as ester groups, as in cellulose acetate. 

Super slurper has wondrous properties, and it amazed people when it was first demonstrated. For some time no one seemed to know how to exploit its potential, then in 1968 chemists came up with the idea of incorporating polyacrylates into diapers, Here was a way to keep urine away from a baby s bottom and reduce diaper rash. The Japanese, always at the forefront of high-tech innovation, ate it up. Not literally, of course, but they could have — toxicity tests showed that the material was remarkably safe. By 1984 North Americans had also discovered the advantages of superabsorbent diapers, and the product rapidly dominated the market. Soon feminine hygiene products were also incorporating the new technology, as were adult incontinence products. 

Advances came quickly. Chemists designed special acrylic polymers that could be used in the manufacture of leak-proof tape to wrap around undersea cables. Or blended with rubber to produce a mortar that swelled on contact with water, providing a tight seal. This was used in the construction of the Chunnel, the artery that connects England and France beneath the waters of the English Channel. You sure wouldn t want any water seeping through those walls. Super slurpers have also proven themselves useful in the little pads you sometimes... 

Now back to our alien autopsy. As it turns out, the creature is just a sophisticated super slurper. His flesh is made of acrylic polymers (partially hydrolyzed acrylonitrile, for those of you interested in the nitty gritty details), which have been chemically linked to starch to achieve just the right gooey consistency when swollen with water. By immersing the super slurper in a salt solution, we can produce a deflating effect. The alien withers away, but I hope his chemistry is no longer alien. 

Fig. 4. Photograph of a sample that was cut from a water saturated composite sheet consisting of Super-Slurper (cellulose chain extended with hydrolysed polyacrylodnitrile) particles (85% by weight) enmeshed in PTFE microfibers. The smaller sample, which had been cut to the same size and shape from the same water saturated composite film, was allowed to evaporate to dryness at ambient room conditions. The original size and shape (represented by the larger sample) was re-established when the smaller sample was allowed to re-swell to saturation in very dilute aqueous NaOH...

He prepared several news releases whose contents varied depending on the audience he intended to reach. Largely through his efforts, our Center received several hundred inquiries in the first few months for more information on the Super Slurper. (We estimate that over the 5-year period since the first amnouncement, we have received and responded to over 5000 inquiries.)... 

Starch from surplus corn has been converted into a superabsorbent material known as SUPER SLURPER. This is being marketed under license by several companies for use in removing water from refined petroleum products and as an absorbent in bandages and diapers. Biodegradable plastic films of starch mixed with other polymers find application as mulches in agriculture and as a... 

A copolymer of this monomer with N,N melhylenebis (acrylamide) imbibed 100 times its weight of water. This swelling was not affected by sodium chloride in the water. Most super-slurpers swell less in the presence of dissolved salts. Thus, the new copolymer may be of use in collecting urine in diapers. Another polymeric hydrogel was made by polymerization of sucrose-l -acrylate using sucrose-6,1 -diacrylate (prepared by enzymatic transesterification of sucrose and vinyl acrylate) as the cross-linking agent.155... 

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