Patent ID: 8372920

Claim:
A process for the production of water-absorbing polymer structures, comprising the process steps: i) providing an aqueous monomer solution containing a polymerizable, monoethylenically unsaturated monomer (α1) carrying acid groups or a salt thereof, optionally a monoethylenically unsaturated monomer (α2) which can be polymerized with the monomer (α1), and optionally a crosslinking agent (α3), ii) radical polymerizing the aqueous monomer solution to give a polymer gel, iii) optionally comminutating the polymer gel, iv) drying of the optionally comminuted polymer gel to give water-absorbing polymer structures, v) optionally grinding and sieving of the water-absorbing polymer structures and vi) surface post-crosslinking of the optionally ground and sieved water-absorbing polymer structures, wherein a reducing agent comprising a sulphonate, a salt of a sulphonate or a mixture of a sulphonate and a salt of a sulphonate is added to I) the aqueous monomer solution before or while carrying out process step ii), II) the polymer gel after carrying out process step ii), III) the optionally comminuted polymer gel after carrying out process step iii), IV) the water-absorbing polymer structure after carrying out process step iv), V) the water-absorbing polymer structure after carrying out process step v), or VI) the water-absorbing polymer structure after carrying out process step vi).