Journal
JOURNAL OF MATERIALS CHEMISTRY
Volume 22, Issue 12, Pages 5801-5809Publisher
ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY
DOI: 10.1039/c2jm16032c
Keywords
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Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [20904043, 20874079]
- National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) [2010CB732203]
- Foundation of Key Laboratory of Cellulose and Lignocellulosic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
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Chitin, poly(N-acetylglucosamine), was fabricated into nanoporous aerogels by using aqueous NaOH-urea solution as solvent and ethanol as coagulant. The chitin solution showed rapid temperature-induced gelation. Subsequently, highly porous and mechanically strong chitin aerogels were prepared by gelation of chitin solution from ethanol, followed by supercritical CO2 drying. The chitin hydrogel was composed of a percolating nanofibril network of about 20 nm width. By using supercritical CO2 drying, the network structure in the hydrogel was well preserved in the aerogel. Our chitin aerogels exhibit low density (0.23-0.27 g cm(-3)), large surface area (up to 366 m(2) g(-1)), moderate thermal stability and high physical integrity up to 270 degrees C, significantly high mechanical properties, and biocompatibility. Our findings are expected to lead to potential applications of chitin aerogels and allow for the fabrication of biomaterials, heat or sound insulators, catalyst supports and many others.
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