Absorbents for acids and lyes

A method for absorbing strong aqueous acids or lyes comprising the steps of:

• a) contacting strong aqueous acids or lyes with an absorbent;
• and
• b) allowing the absorbents to absorb the strong aqueous acids or lyes,
• wherein said absorbent comprises cross-linked, polycationic homopolymers, copolymers, or homopolymers and copolymers of particle size 50 to 5,000 .mu.m, which have been produced by radically initiated polymerization in aqueous solution, said polycationic homopolymers and copolymers being of quaternized, monoethylenically unsaturated carboxylic acid amino esters and/or carboxylic acid amides of the formula
• {CH.sub.2 =C(--R.sub.1)--CO--X--(CH.sub.2).sub.n --C(--R.sub.2, --R.sub.3)--CH.sub.2 --N(--R.sub.4, --R.sub.5, --R.sub.6)}.sup..sym. Y, (A),
• wherein:
• R.sub.1 represents hydrogen or a methyl group,
• R.sub.2 and R.sub.3 represent hydrogen or the same or different alkyl groups having 1 to 4 C-atoms,
• R.sub.4, R.sub.5 and R.sub.6 represent the same or different alkyl groups having 1 to 4 C-atoms,
• n stands for 0 or 1,
• X stands for --O-- or --NH--, and
• Y represents an anionic acid residue,
• wherein the copolymers comprise up to 70%-wt. of non-ionic monomers of the formulae (B) and/or (C), based on the total amount of monomers A+B+C
• CH.sub.2 =C(--R.sub.1)--Z (B)
• CH.sub.2 =C(--R.sub.1)--CO--X--(CH.sub.2).sub.n --C(--R.sub.2, --R.sub.3)--CH.sub.2 --N(--R.sub.4, R.sub.6) (C)
• wherein R.sub.1, R.sub.2, R.sub.3, R.sub.4, R.sub.5, R.sub.6, and X have the meaning as in formula (A) and Z stands for --CO--N(--R.sub.1, R.sub.2), --CO--O--(CH.sub.2).sub.n --C(--R.sub.2, --R.sub.3)--CH.sub.2 --OH, or for --CN, these monomers being incorporated by polymerization.