Seminars

Séminaire SIMM

Tatiana Budtova
PSL Research University, MINES Paris, Center for Materials Forming (CEMEF), UMR CNRS 7635, CS 10207, 06904 Sophia Antipolis, France

"Polysaccharide aerogels : an overview"

Aerogels are fascinating materials that are usually described with the adverb “very” : very low density (around 0.1 g/cm3 and lower), very high porosity (above 90%) and very high surface area of pores (several hundred m2/g). Classical aerogels are inorganic (the most popular being based on silica) or based on synthetic polymers. At the beginning of the 21st century new aerogels were made : they are bio-based, and for the time being the majority are based on polysaccharides.
The first studies on bio-aerogels were devoted to cellulose : aerogels were made via cellulose dissolution in various solvents. Since that time other polysaccharides (starch, pectin, alginate, hyaluronic acid, chitosan) were used to make aerogels, and various applications were tested : for thermal insulation, as carbons for electro-chemical applications, as drug carriers, etc. An overview of the current status and prospects in bio-aerogels will be made.