Evaluation of supercritical CO2 dried cellulose aerogels as nano-biomaterials

Sinah Lee, Kyu Young Kang, Myung Joon Jeong, Antje Potthast, Falk Liebner

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

17 Scopus citations

Abstract

Cellulose is the renewable, biodegradable and abundant resource and is suggested as an alternative material to silica due to the high price and environmental load of silica. The first step for cellulose aerogel production is to dissolve cellulose, and hydrated calcium thiocyanate molten salt is one of the most effective solvents for preparing porous material. Cellulose aerogels were prepared from dissolved cellulose samples of different degree of polymerization (DP) and drying methods, and tested with shrinkage, density and mechanical strength. Supercritical CO2 dried cellulose aerogels shrank less compared to freeze-dried cellulose aerogels, whereas the densities were increased according to the DP increases in both cellulose aerogels. Furthermore, scanning electron microscope (SEM) images showed that the higher DP cellulose aerogels were more uniform with micro-porous structure. Regarding the mechanical strength of cellulose aerogels, supercritical CO2 dried cellulose aerogels with higher molecular weight were much more solid.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)483-486
Number of pages4
JournalJournal of the Korean Physical Society
Volume71
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Oct 2017

Keywords

  • Aerogel
  • Cellulose
  • Freeze-drying
  • Microstructure
  • Supercritical CO drying

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