In order to serve as the roller filter used in the post chemical mechanical polishing (post-CMP) cleaning processes of making silicon wafers, the effect of reinforcing the physical strength of Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) sponges through the process of the double acetalization with and without using the pore forming agent is investigated in the present study. From the measurements of the Young's modulus, we found that the process of the double acetalization does reinforce the physical strength of PVA sponges with and without using the pore-forming agent because of increasing the conversion rate of formaldehyde. The effect of double acetalization on the water adsorption capacity of PVA sponges will be also investigated in the present study. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.