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Sodium Polyacrylate

Here are some pictures of the amazing material sodium polyacrylate (SPA). In the pictures you will see what it does, and if you can't tell what happened, I added first 25, then 50 ml of water to about 3 ml of SPA. All the water was absorbed. The captions will give you a breif description of what you see in each slide. Enjoy.
Chemical Formula:
CH₂-CH(CO₂Na)

Pic 1: (from left to right) Powder scoop, bottle of SPA, Erlenmeyer flask
Pic 2: Adding SPA to the flask
Pic 3: SPA in the flask
Pic 4: Added 25 ml of water, absorbed and the SPA takes on the texture of fake snow
Pic 5: Some SPA in my hand, feels cool due to evaporation
Pic 6: Added another 25 ml of water to SPA, feels cold and slimy (think partially solidified Jello)

28 comments

Jun 30, 2008. 11:10 AM

Pazzerz says:

Its a polymer. I used to make the stuff in two different absorption formulas for a company I used to work for. One would absorb 100x and the other would absorb 1000x its own weight in water. Uses? Keeping water in soil in dry arid regions, baby diapers, feminine napkins... you go from there.

May 26, 2011. 9:25 PMcgalbreath says:

In what form could you apply this to soil in a dry area? Granular? At what rate?

May 27, 2011. 5:56 AM

Pazzerz says:

Don't know the percentage that is used, but it isn't much. They slowly dry out, letting out moisture back into the soil in a much longer time frame than with soil alone. They can then be rehydrated either by nature or by artificial means.

Jul 28, 2010. 1:10 PMSAYEDMAJID1 says:

SIR kenbo0422 can you tell me how can i made it at home with higher efficiency.

Nov 14, 2009. 8:51 AMflamethrower1010 says:

what ounce bottle is that?

Aug 28, 2008. 8:09 PMnuclearscience says:

I bought that stuff & the stuff that glows in the dark , mixed them to gather & made glowing snow ,which worked really well. then i decided to freeze it & threw it at the side of my house which made a glowing splater mark when it got dark which was really cool