Transparent liquid absorbent materials

Abstract

A liquid-absorbent composition comprising (a) a polymeric matrix component comprising crosslinked silanol moieties, and (b) a liquid-absorbent component comprising a water-absorbent polymer, preferably a water-soluble polymer. This composition is capable of forming liquid-absorbent, semi-interpenetrating polymeric networks, which are capable of absorbing significant quantities of those liquids that are solvents for the uncrosslinked portion of the network without loss of physical integrity and without leaching or other forms of phase separation. The compositions of this invention provides polymeric matrices which result in transparent coatings capable of providing improved combinations of ink absorption and durability, while at the same time retaining transparency and being amenable to the types of processing commonly used in producing transparent graphical materials.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.