Review of the characterization of sodium alginate by intrinsic viscosity measurements. Comparative analysis between conventional and single point methods

M. MASUELLI; C. ILLANES

International Journal of Biomaterials Science and Engineering

Open Science Publishing

Año: 2014

2381-3806

In the pharmaceutical and food industry, alginate is used in aqueous solutions and excipients as thickener, gelling agent,coagulant and encapsulant. This biopolymer is very important, with many key industrial applications, especially if theintrinsic viscosity [η] and the viscometric molecular weight (Mv) are known. Alginate is obtained from the cell walls ofalgae such as Macrocystis pyrifera, Laminaria hyperborea, Laminaria digitata, Laminaria japonica, Sargassum vulgare,etc.; bacteria such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Azotobacter vinelandii can also synthesize it. This work studiedalginate in aqueous solution from 0.25 to 1% wt., measuring its intrinsic viscosity in order to obtain its Mv. The intrinsicviscosity is calculated by the classical methods of Huggins, Kremer, Schulz-Blashke and Martin. We compared severalsingle point methods to determine which of them would be more appropriate for an alginate-water system. We alsoobtained Mark-Houwink parameters and the corresponding viscometric molecular weight.