The phosphorylated poly(vinyl alcohol) (PPVA) samples with various substitution degrees were prepared through the esterification reaction of PVA and phosphoric acid. By using chitosan (CTS), acrylic acid (AA) and P-PVA as raw materials, ammonium persulphate (APS) as an initiator and N,N-methylenebisacrylamide as a crosslinker, the CTS-,g-PAA/P-PVA semi-interpenetrated polymer network (IPN) ssuperabsorbent hydrogel was prepared in aqueous solution by the graft copolymerization of CTS and AA and followed by an interpenetrating and crosslinking of P-PVA chains. The hydrogel was characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) techniques, and the influence of reaction variables, such as the substitution degree and content of P-PVA on water absorbency were also investigated. FTIR and DSC results confirmed that PAA had been grafted onto CTS backbone and revealed the existence of phase separation and the formation of semi-IPN network structure. SEM observations indicate that the incorporation of P-PVA induced highly porous structure, and P-PVA was uniformly dispersed in the polymeric network. Swelling results showed that CTS-g-PAA/P-PVA semi-IPN superabsorbent hydrogel exhibited improved swelling capability (421 g-g(-1) in distilled water and 55 g-g-1 in 0.9 wt % NaCl solution) and swelling rate compared with CTS-g-PAA/PVA hydrogel (301. g.g(-1) in distilled water and 47 g-g-1 in 0.9 wt %, NaCl solution) due to the phosphorylation of PVA. (C) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 114: 643-652, 2009)