A series of superabsorbent polymers (SAP) were synthesized by free radical thermal copolymerization of acrylic acid and N‐isopropyl acrylamide monomers using trimethylolpropane triacrylate as crosslinker. They were characterized by FT‐IR and thermal stability (TGA/DTG), and evaluated for their water and fertilizer uptake and release characteristics under different crosslinker levels, temperature, pressure, and pH. The observed maximum absorption of water by the SAP was 1130 g/g of polymer. The release was modeled which showed a non‐Fickian mechanism. The water uptake of SAP was correlated with the average molecular weight between the crosslinks and crosslink density. Analysis of the weight loss data from TG in air revealed a zero order kinetics for the initial degradation step with an activation energy (AE) of 70.8 kJ/mol. The AEs for water uptake and release for thermal degradation were also determined through Arrhenius plots. The results inferred that the synthesized SAP can be exploited for commercial agricultural applications. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013

In the recently published article cited above, Scheme 1 was published in error. The corrected part of Scheme 1 is shown below.

A cost effective multistep bio-physicochemical method comprising adsorption on carbon, banana pseudo-stem (BPS), and modified chitosan hydrogels (MHPS) as adsorbents, bioremediation using Oscillatoria boryana (OB) and constant current electrolysis was employed successfully to remove oxygen demanding organic wastes, color, total dissolved solids (TDS), melanoidin, and acidic/ basic impurities from distillery spent wash (DSW). The adsorbent were characterized for their structures [Shimadzu FTIR (Fourier transform-Infrared spectroscopy)28400S], thermal stability [TGA (Thermogravimetric analyzer)-Q 500 V20.0 Build 36] and surface morphology [ZEISS EVO series SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy)-EVO 50]. The percentage color reduction by visible spectrometry and residual coloring matter on platinum-cobalt color unit scale were found to be 97.2% and 250 ppm, respectively till OB bioremediation stage. The remaining residual color (2.8%) was removed in the subsequent electrolysis (1.95%) and adsorption on MHPS (0.85%) stages. The net percent reduction in color (>99%), COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand) and BOD (Biochemical Oxygen Demand) in the present composite approach for DSW treatment were found to be much higher than the reported values. Analysis of the adsorption data for the synthesized activated carbon through Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models revealed Langmuir adsorption isotherm with pseudo-first-order kinetics. The evaluated thermodynamic parameters (Van't Hoff plot) for adsorption revealed that the adsorption was spontaneous and exothermic.