ketone and the like alcoholic solutions may be extruded into a non aqueous coagulant such as chlorinated hydrocarbons i e methylene chloride perchloroethylene and the like the soft extruded fibers are then removed from the bath by any convenient means such as a three or five roll cluster and carried through a heated chamber at a temperature greater than about 30 u00b0 c and preferably in the range from about 70 u00b0 to about 150 u00b0 c to dry and to crosslink the polyelectrolyte fibers the absorbency of the crosslinked polyelectrolytes grams solution gelled per gram of polyelectrolyte is determined in the following manner using synthetic urine 0 27 n sodium chloride solution a 0 5 gram sample of a crosslinked polyelectrolyte is weighed into a 250 ml beaker a 0 27 n sodium chloride solution 150 ml is poured into the beaker and allowed to soak for 2 hours at room temperature with occasional stirring the swelled polyelectrolyte is then collected by filtration and the gel capacity is reported as grams of solution gelled per gram of polymer salt the following examples are presented solely to illustrate but not limit the invention 20 grams 0 0694 moles of polyacrylic acid rohm amp haas acrysol a 5 was treated with 2 08 grams 0 052 moles of sodium hydroxide dissolved in 2 08 g water to produce a polyelectrolyte solution of 25 4 solids which was 75 mole percent sodium acrylate with a ph of about 5 then various amounts of substituted amide curing agents were added to the solution and the mixtures were spread on a polished chrome plate with a 25 mil draw bar to form films after air drying the films were stripped from the.