Hydrophilic Powder Used To Save Library Books

VersatilePrimate writes "Wired News has a story about a polymer that can instantaniously suck 2000 times in its body weight of water. Super Slurper, a starch-based polymer with a powerful thirst, has been employed in diapers and filters, but researchers want to turn the page and develop a different application: drying waterlogged books."

Comments

The ultimate battle...

[greenhide]

This stuff vs. the Super Big Gulp...

Consequently

[kurosawdust]

In a related story, the number of borrowable copies of Short Stories to Read While You Kayak jumped up 7,000%...

Acid, Heat, UV Eats Paper

[4of12]

From what I understand, one of the big problems for libraries is that mass produced paper in the last 150 years or so is acidic and degrades the paper. I've looked at 100 year old newspapers in local libraries that were practically crumbling.

Leave a newspaper out in the sun a couple of weeks and you'll get the idea of what happens in a shorter time frame.

I've heard of efforts to treat books with a base to help balance the pH and halt degradation, but I think it's somewhat expensive.

Sometimes I've thought that some of my old comic books might better be treated with a base or else stored in a freezer. Meanwhile, they're yellowing with age.

Slurp?

[Anonymous Coward]

Super Slurper ... has been employed in diapers ...

I don't know whether to be horrified or aroused at the prospect of Super Slurper in my underpants.

Re:Fact or fiction?

[meridoc]

Here's a link to a Sci. Am. article on super-absorbing stuff. At the bottom is a picture of water molecules associating with the polymer chain.

It'll help to remember that the water/polymer association is just that: an association. This isn't a 1:1 bonding situation, so the carboxyl groups can attract more than one water molecule.