Study of water release that is absorbed by super absorbent polymer in disposable baby diapers

Abstract

Super Absorbent Polymer (SAP) was the main component in disposable baby diapers. The functions of SAP were to absorb and to hold the liquid in disposable baby diapers. After the water was be absorbed by SAP, it was difficult to be released back into the environment. One of the way to release the water absorbed by SAP was conducted by addition of hygroscopic salt into the SAP. This research was conducted to determine the optimum addition of hygroscopic salt in saturated SAP and then to measure the water that can be released form SAP. The kind of hygroscopic salt sodium chloride (NaCl) and calcium carbonate (CaCO3). The variable of this experiment were quantity of the salt, duration time, and mixing rate. The analysis of this experiment was conducted using Design of Expert (DoE) 6.0.10 program to get the optimum quantity of the water that can be released from SAP. Based on the data, the high of quantity water can be released from SAP after it was added with sodium chloride. The optimum of quantity released water was 386.108 mL with the addition of 11.45 g NaCl and the mixing rate was 98.31 rpm for 29.91 minutes.