owadays, it is one of the human’s goals to produce superabsorbent goods because of their growing applications. Cellulosic absorbent materials are widely used in all around of the world due to their biocompatibility and economical benefits. Most of the cellulosic absorbents can be used as diaper or sanitary tissues, Pulp is used also as a cellulosic absorbent, cellulosic fibers are able to absorb water, which have an essential role in water absorbency, but their water retention is low. In this research work, it has been tried to improve absorption and water retention of cellulosic materials by swelling, using finishing pretreatments and then grafting the chains. The fibers were cured and mercerized using both in traditional and ultrasonic methods. Grafting reaction was performed with two different monomers, acrylonitrile and methacrylate. These two monomers grafted to cellulose by redox system using potassium permanganate and citric acid. Grafting reaction leads to replace hydrophilic groups of fiber by hydrophobic groups of polymer, then alkali hydrolysis was took place in next step. Finally, FTIR spectra of the samples and cross section of the cured and mercerized fibers were obtained. Whiteness index and the rate of grafting also were measured. Centrifuge and basket method were applied to determine water retention of specimens. The maximum grafting which were obtained using methacrylate and acrylonitrile, were 173.6% and 133.2%, respectively. The highest whiteness index was 69.1 for the sample which was mercerized at 20°C using 260g/lit caustic soda, then grafted and hydrolyzed. Water retention of raw fibers was 46.1 (g/g). Water retention was 55.4 (g/g) for scoured samples and 63.4 (g/g) for mercerized ones. The maximum amount of water retention of the sample which was grafted by acrylonitrile and then hydrolyzed was 59.79(g/g) but for methacrylate grafting was 185.47(g/g).