ABSTRACT
The compatibility of macronets with soil and their hydrophilic character as well increase proportionally to the number of ionic groups that are introduced into their structure. A variety of examples of starch-polyacrylamide conditioner application in soil systems is reported while blends of starch-grafted polyacrylonitrile or polyacrylamide with unmodified starch or polyvinyl alcoholare reported. The ion-exchange properties are associated with an increase of the hydrophilic character and result in elevated swelling degrees of the polymer in polar media, when ionic groups are introduced to cross-linked macronets to a certain degree, usually more than 25% of the available units. The recent trends and perspective of cross-linked polymeric soil conditioners (PSC) are particularly connected with postpolymerization processes. So cross-linked PSC, prepared via postpolymerization reactions are based on various modifications of linear macromolecules and grafted or block copolymers with multifunctional compounds as cross-linking agents.
