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US 7,977,531 B2Granted
Absorbent articles comprising absorbent materials exhibiting deswell/reswell
AssigneeKimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc.
InventorsRichard N. Dodge, II, Jian Qin, Scott J. Smith, Gonglu Tian, Yaru Shi
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention relates to absorbent articles that include absorbent compositions which exhibit swelling, deswelling, and reswelling behavior. More specifically, absorbent compositions of this invention swell and absorb fluids after exposure to aqueous fluids, deswell and release fluids from the swollen absorbent compositions, and can also reswell and absorb fluids. The swelling-deswelling-reswelling behavior allows enhanced liquid distribution in absorbent composites and absorbent articles.
Claims38
An absorbent article comprising:
- an absorbent core;
- wherein the absorbent core includes an absorbent composition comprising:
- a. a SAP having anionic functional groups;
- b. a deswell triggering agent comprising a first water-soluble chemical comprising cations X having an ionized valence of two or more;
- and
- c. a reswell triggering agent comprising a second water-soluble chemical comprising anions Y;
- wherein the cations X of the first water-soluble chemical are capable of complexing with the anionic functional groups of the SAP;
- and the anions Y of the second water-soluble chemical are capable of complexing with the cations X to form a salt having a solubility product constant Ksp <10−5.
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An absorbent article comprising:
- an absorbent core;
- wherein the absorbent core includes an absorbent composition comprising:
- a. a SAP comprising partially neutralized crosslinked poly(acrylic acid) wherein from about 40 molar percent to about 60 molar percent of the acidic functional groups are neutralized, having a pH less than about 6.0;
- b. a deswell triggering agent comprising a first water-soluble chemical;
- c. a reswell triggering agent comprising a second water-soluble chemical having a pH of about 10 or more;
- wherein when the absorbent composition is contacted with an aqueous fluid, the SAP exhibits swell-deswell-reswell behavior and the resultant swollen SAP has a pH higher than the SAP of a);
- and
- wherein the deswell triggering agent has a release profile for releasing the first water-soluble chemical wherein the release profile is selected from a singular release profile or a sigmoidal release profile, and the reswell triggering agent has a sigmoidal release profile for releasing the second water-soluble chemical;
- wherein the first water-soluble chemical has a higher cumulative release than the second water-soluble chemical after exposure to aqueous fluid and before about 100% release.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.