Smart Hydrogels Application in bioethanol production

LUCINDA MULKO; EDITH YSLAS; SILVESTRE BONGIOVANNI ABEL; CLAUDIA RIVAROLA; CESAR BARBERO; DIEGO ACEVEDO

Handbook of Composite from Renewable Materials

Wiley-Scrivener

Año: 2017;

Hydrogels are crosslinked macromolecular materials formed by hydrophilic polymers that absorb water or similar fluids. Some kinds of hydrogels are known as ?smart hydrogels?. They are stimuli responsive materials, which are able to suffer a volume phase transition in response to changing different environmental conditions such as temperature, pH, solvent composition, ionic strength or electrical-magnetical stimuli. In this chapter, the synthesis and characterization of smart hydrogels with different porosity (nanopores, macropores, superpores) are described. The application of smart hydrogels in bioethanol production is discussed, taking into account the advantage of these materials to generate a safe and biocompatible environment to the biocatalyst.