Method for preparing super absorbent polymer and super absorbent polymer prepared therefrom

1. A method for preparing a super absorbent polymer comprising the steps of:

1) preparing a hydrous gel phase polymer by thermal polymerizing or photo-polymerizing a monomer composition including a water-soluble ethylene-based unsaturated monomer and a polymerization initiator;

2) mixing the hydrous gel phase polymer with a polycarboxylic acid-based copolymer having a repeating unit represented by the following Chemical Formulas 1-a and 1-b and pulverizing the polymer;

3) drying the pulverized polymer;

4) pulverizing the dried polymer; and

5) surface-crosslinking the pulverized polymer

in Chemical Formulas 1-a and 1-b,

R 1 , R 2 and R 3 are each independently hydrogen, or an alkyl group having 1 to 6 carbon atoms,

RO is an oxyalkylene group having 2 to 4 carbon atoms,

M 1 is hydrogen, or a monovalent metal or a non-metal ion,

X is —COO—, an alkyloxy group having 1 to 5 carbon atoms, or an alkyldioxy group having 1 to 5 carbon atoms,

m is an integer of 1 to 100,

n is an integer of 1 to 1000, and

p is an integer of 1 to 150, provided that when p is 2 or more, two or more repeated —RO— may be the same or different from each other.

2. The method for preparing a super absorbent polymer according to claim 1 , wherein the polycarboxylic acid-based copolymer in the step 2 is mixed in an amount of 0.001 to 5 parts by weight based on 100 parts by weight of the solid content of the hydrous gel phase polymer.

3. The method for preparing a super absorbent polymer according to claim 1 , wherein the polycarboxylic acid-based copolymer has a weight average molecular weight of 500 to 1,000,000.

4. The method for preparing a super absorbent polymer according to claim 1 , wherein the drying of the step 3 is carried out at a temperature of 120° C. to 250° C.

5. The method for preparing a super absorbent polymer according to claim 1 , wherein the pulverization of step 2 is carried out so that the particle size of the hydrous gel phase polymer becomes 1 mm to 10 mm.

6. The method for preparing a super absorbent polymer according to claim 1 , wherein the pulverization of the dried polymer is carried out so that the particle size of the pulverized polymer becomes 150 to 850 μm.

7. The method for preparing a super absorbent polymer according to claim 1 , wherein the surface crosslinking is carried out at a temperature of 100 to 250° C.

8. The method for preparing a super absorbent polymer according to claim 1 , wherein the surface crosslinking is carried out with one or more crosslinking agents selected from the group consisting of ethylene glycol diglycidyl ether, polyethylene glycol diglycidyl ether, glycerol polyglycidyl ether, propylene glycol diglycidyl ether, polypropylene glycol diglycidyl ether, ethylene carbonate, ethylene glycol, diethylene glycol, propylene glycol, triethylene glycol, tetraethylene glycol, propanediol, dipropylene glycol, polypropylene glycol, glycerin, polyglycerin, butanediol, heptanediol, hexanediol, trimethylolpropane, pentaerythritol, sorbitol, calcium hydroxide, magnesium hydroxide, aluminum hydroxide, iron hydroxide, calcium chloride, magnesium chloride, aluminum chloride, and iron chloride.