| dc.description.abstract | This study aims to synthesize a hydrogel zeolite
composite of arrowroot starch graft copolymerized with acrylic
acid through a radical polymerization reaction in a water.
Various scenarios were tested using different natural zeolite
concentration to determine the impact on swelling/water
absorption of the composite. The resulting product was a solid
gel—the test results showed that the swelling increased as the
ratio of starch to acrylic acid decreased. Increased starch
concentrations generally lead to decreased water absorption
(swelling capacity). Adding a zeolite improved swelling to
some extent and the optimum zeolite concentration was 60%.
The increased concentration of zeolite also hardened the
hydrogel composite. The highest swelling in the hydrogel
composite of starch-g-poly(acrylic acid)/zeolite 60% is 1056.25
g.g
-1
. FTIR analysis of functional groups was conducted to
determine differences in the IR spectra of arrowroot starch,
acrylic acid, hydrogels, zeolites, and composite hydrogel. Si-O
signal appearing on the IR spectra of hydrogel composite with
wave number 1030 cm-1
indicates that composite hydrogel with
zeolite was synthesized. | en_US |
