Abstract:
Superabsorbent materials are used in a vast number of applications including medical, industrial,
agricultural and personal care products. The rapid growth in the textile industry and improvement
in technology has tasked innovators to diversify on the different textile raw materials for various
applications improving on the utilization and management of resources. Banana fibers have been
utilized for clothing application and bagasse fibers used for cleaning oil floors due to their
reasonable absorbency. In efforts to curb plastic pollution the national environment authority
(NEMA) came with a national strategy for management of plastic pollution (2023 to 2028) which
involves shaping market for plastic alternatives. The fibers were blended by carding processes to
obtain a thorough mixture of the fluff fiber pulp. Box Behnken Design (BBD) as the response
surface methodology RSM was used considering factors acrylic acid, fibers, potassium persulfate,
time, temperature for polymerization and cross-linking Graft polymerization was carried out on
the carded fiber fluff pulp using acrylic acid and potassium persulfate as the initiator and
crosslinked using N, N-methylene bisacrylamide (MBA).
