Patent ID: 7459501

Claim:
A method for preparing a superabsorbent polymer, comprising: graft polymerizing a monomer onto a starch in the presence of an initiator to form a starch graft copolymer, wherein the monomer is at least one of the following: acrylic acid, acrylamide, methacrylamide, 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-propanesulfonic acid, methacrylic acid, vinyl sulfonic acid, ethyl acrylate, potassium acrylate, derivatives thereof or mixtures thereof; adding a cross-linking agent to cross-link the starch graft copolymer; isolating the starch graft copolymer by extruding the starch graft copolymer into strands after cross-linking the starch graft copolymer; applying an alcohol to the strands to reduce tackiness of the extruded strands, the alcohol chosen from: methanol, ethanol, propanol or isopropanol; and forming granules of starch graft copolymer from the extruded strands.