Using a small bird’s nest-making process as a model, researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a nontoxic process for making cellulose gels. The freeze-thaw process is simple, cost-effective, and can create cellulose gels that are useful in a number of applications, including tunable gels for timed drug delivery. The process also works with bamboo and potentially other lignin-containing plant fibers.
The work appears in Advanced Composites and Hybrid Materials. Noureddine Abidi of Texas Tech University is a co-corresponding author of the work.
Cellulose is a wonderful material for making hydrogels—which are used in applications ranging from contact lenses to wound care and drug delivery. But creating hydrogels from cellulose is tricky, and often the processes used to create the hydrogels are themselves toxic.
“Normally, you have to first dissolve the cellulose and then induce it to crosslink or form the structure of interest, which often requires the use of difficult to handle, unstable, or toxic solvents,” says Lucian Lucia, professor of forest biomaterials and chemistry at NC State and co-corresponding author of the work.
Enter the swift family of