JP2831410B

A process for the preparation of finely divided, gelatinous, water-swellable copolymers involves copolymerising a) 100 parts by weight of water-soluble, monoethylenically unsaturated monomers, b) from 0.01 to 5 parts by weight of monomers containing at least two ethylenically unsaturated double bonds, and c) from 0 to 20 parts by weight of water-insoluble, monoethylenically unsaturated monomers, in from 20 to 80 % strength by weight aqueous solution in the presence of polymerisation initiators and in the presence of from 0.1 to 10 % by weight, based on the monomers employed in the copolymerisation, of surfactants, the monomers being copolymerised in the presence of first from 0 to 50 % by weight of the amount of surfactants, to a conversion of at least 60 %, the remainder of the surfactants then being added to the reaction mixture, and the copolymerisation being completed and the resultant gel particles being dried.