OIL ABSORBING AGENT

PURPOSE:To obtain an oil absorbing agent useful for recovering an oil flowing out on the sea, having excellent oil absorbing rate, oil retaining performance and oil absorbing performance by subjecting a specific monomer component to aqueous suspension polymerization in the presence of a nonionic surfactant, etc. CONSTITUTION:A monomer component comprising a mixture of (A) one or more selected from (meth)acrylate of a 15-30C monohydric aliphatic alcohol, a 15-30C monofunctional fatty acid vinyl ester, a 15-30C aliphatic alkyl group- containing vinyl ether and a 15-30C aliphatic alkyl group-containing allyl ether and (B) a monomer containing one polymerizable unsaturated group in a molecule consisting essentially of a 2-6C alkyl group-containing methacrylate and (C) 0.001-10wt.% crosslinkable monomer containing two or more polymerizable unsaturated groups in the molecule based on the whole monomers is copolymerized in the presence of a nonionic surfactant and a slightly soluble inorganic salt by aqueous suspension polymerization to give the objective oil absorbing agent in a finely particulate state. The copolymerization ratio of the component A and the component B by weight is preferably 1/4-4/1.