Study on physicochemical properties and water absorbencies of superabsorbent composites of palygorskite clays from different places

The mineralogy and chemical constitute of palygorskite clays from Gansu, Jiangsu and Anhui province were investigated with XRF, XRD, FTIR etc, and polyacrylamide/palygorskite superabsorbent composites were prepared. Although Gansu palygorskite clay has the lowest palygorskite content in three clays, the results indicate that water absorbencies of the superabsorbent composite that was 1355 g/g in distilled water was in between two other superabsorbents, and 89 g/g in 0.9% NaCl solution which was highest in three superabsorbents. It shows that palygorskite content in clay can not effect directly on properties of the superabsorbent composite. This result implies that a low content palygorskite clay is useful in some areas such as the preparation for superabsorbent composite.