Porous, absorbent, polymeric macrostructures and methods of making the same

A porous, absorbent, polymeric macrostructure comprising an interparticle crosslinked aggregate comprising (i) a multiplicity of substantially dry precursor particles of substantially water-insoluble, absorbent, hydrogel-forming, polymer material, said polymer material of said precursor particles being selected from the group consisting of hydrolyzed starch-acrylonitrile graft copolymer;

• partially neutralized starch-acrylonitrile graft copolymer;
• starch-acrylic acid graft copolymer;
• partially neutralized starch-acrylic acid graft copolymer;
• saponified vinyl acetate-acrylic ester copolymers;
• hydrolyzed arylonitcrile or acrylamide copolymers;
• slightly network crosslinked products of any of the foregoing copolymers;
• partially neutralized polyacrylic acid;
• or slightly network crosslinked products of partially neutralized polyacrylic acid;
• and (ii) an interparticle crosslinking agent reacted with said polymer material of said precursor particles to form crosslink bonds between said precursor particles, said interparticle crosslinking agent being selected from the group consisting of polyhydric alcohol compounds, polyglycidyl ether compounds, polyfunctional aziridine compounds, polyfunctional amine compounds, and polyfunctional isocyanate compounds;
• said interparticle crosslinked aggregate having pores between adjacent of said precursor particles, said pores being interconnected by intercommunicating channels so that the macrostructure is liquid permeable, the circumscribed dry volume of the macrostructure being greater than about 100.0 mm.sup.3.