Patent ID: 8282774

Claim:
A personal hygiene article for absorbing fluids, the article comprising: at least one fluid permeable top sheet layer and at least one substantially fluid impermeable back sheet layer; and an absorbent sub layer material interposed between the top sheet layer and the back sheet layer, the sub layer material comprising a treated lignocellulosic material, comprising: a viscosity equal to or less than about 10 cps; and functional groups selected from the group consisting of aldehyde functional groups, hemiacetal functional groups, and combinations thereof; said treated lignocellulosic material made by a process comprising treating a lignocellulosic material by adding from 0.01 to 0.1% of a catalyst by weight of the lignocellulosic material wherein said catalyst comprises a transition metal selected from iron, zinc, cobalt, nickel, manganese, tungsten, zirconium, cerium, chromium and combinations thereof in the presence of from 0.5 to 5% oxidizing agent by weight of the lignocellulosic material wherein said oxidizing agent is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen peroxide, hypochlorite, hypochlorous acid and any combination thereof at a pH from about 2 to about 6 to form said treated lignocellulosic material without refining thereafter said treating step.