Sophia Puricelli and Jill Saliba

Superabsorbant Polymers: Water Gel Beads

Procedure:

1. Pour beads onto weigh boat so they will not roll away.
2. Observe all of the water beads for their felling, size, and shape.
3. Then measure the water beads using a ruler .
4. Scoop the half of water beads into the beaker. Measure the water beads inside of the beaker
and record data.
5. Add between 200ml and 300ml of Room Temperature Water into the beaker and observe the
appearance. Record results.
6. Repeat step 4 with a clean beaker and the second half of the water beads.
7. Repeat step 5 with Hot Water
8. Leave both beakers sit for 5 minutes.
9. Remove beads from both solutions and observe change.
10. Measure results and record.

Materials:
• Water beads
• Two 400 ml beakers
• Hot Water
• Room Temperature Water
• Spoon
• Ruler
• Weigh Boat

Measure before Water

• Outside of Water: 3 cm
• Before room temperature water: .4 cm
• Before hot water: 1.2 cm

Measured Inside of Water

• Inside of room temperature water: .6 cm
• Inside of hot temperature water: 1.2 cm

Measured after Water

• After room temperature water: .6 cm
• After hot water: .4 cm
 Length (cm)

Before the inside of the water Inside of Water After Water

.4 cm 6 cm • .6 cm

1.2 cm 1.2 cm • .4 cm

Hypothesis:
• We believe that the orbeez will grow the quickest and largest in the cold water.

Research:
• Super absorbent polymers are made of small molecules joined together to make one super
absorbent polymer. This specific type of polymer is one that in order to grow, has to be placed
into water. Orbeez are a super absorbent polymer because they absorb water into order to grow
as well. The only way to make to make orbeez grow is to place them into water.

Question:
• What temperature of the water will make the orbeez grow the largest, warm or cold
water?

Analysis and Conclusion

• In conclusion, our hypothesis proved to be wrong. The longer the orbeez stayed in the water
the larger they grew in size. Our data proved our hypothesis wrong due to the short amount
of the time that the orbeez were inside of the hot water, they grew quickly compared to the
cold water which took longer to get to the size of the warm water orbeez. One error that
could have affected our data was putting the orbeez in the cold water before the orbeez in the
hot water. One way that this project could be corrected in the future was putting the orbeez in
their liquids at the same time.
MLA Citations
• How Do Superabsorbent Polymers Work?, www.m2polymer.com/html/
superabsorbent_polymers.html.
• “The Science of Orbeez.” Simplebooklet.com, simplebooklet.com/publish.php?
wpKey=Y1b3yuO17RUcWAE1smQqg5.
• “Water Beads | Super Absorbent Polymers Science Project.” Home Science Tools, 29 Nov.
2017, learning-center.homesciencetools.com/article/water-beads-superabsorbent-polymer-
science/.