Microstructural properties of starch-alginate aerogels

M.C. DEL BARRIO; M.M.S. LENCINA; D.A. VEGA; M.A. VILLAR; C.M. PIQUERAS

Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires

Simposio; XVI Simposio Latinoamericano de Polímeros, SLAP?18 y XIV Congreso Iberoamericano de Polímeros, CIP?18; 2018

INTEMA (UNS-CONICET)

Aerogels are highly added-value materials having an open pore structure, high surface and very low densities, and are formed by consecutive steps including gelation, solvent exchange and CO2 supercritical drying. Thus, the structural properties of aerogels strongly depend on both the nature of the precursor gel and the drying routine used. Polysaccharides, like starch and alginate, are very attractive precursors because their biocompatibility, biodegrade-bility and low cost, with a great potential in tissue engineering, bone regeneration and drug delivery applications, among others. In this work, starch-alginate mesoporous materials were formed and the influence on the aerogel structural properties of the mass concentration and the ratio of both biopolymers in the pregel mixture, the gelation time and the CO2 depressurization speed were studied.