The Baby Diaper Secret

Materials:

  • Styrofoam and plastic cups

  • Small spoon

  • Water Gel (Sodium Polyacrylate)

  • Water

  • Baby Diaper

  • Scissor

  • Bag

Procedures:

  1. Put 1/2 teaspoon of Water Gel (Sodium Polyacrylate) in a plastic or in a Styrofoam cup.

  2. Pour 4 ounces of room temperature water.

  3. Turn the cup upside down and the water will be gone.

You will that the white powder is absorbed by water. The water gel(sodium Polyacrylate)turns water from a liquid into a solid.

What causes this to happen?

My chemistry demo experiment is about Baby Diaper Secret. You may all know that baby diapers absorb lots of water, therefore in this experiment I'm showing you how it works. Lets start with the science behind this experiment.

Sodium Polyacrylate is a chemical name for the diaper polymer, it is a white powder that absorbs approximately 500 times its weight in water.

This is the reason why this polymer give its super water absorbing properties, because polymers are made up of many smaller units, called molecules.