Freezing influence on physical properties of glucomannan hydrogels

Autor(es)

Genevro, Giovana Maria ^[1] ; de Moraes, Mariana Agostini ^[2] ; Beppu, Marisa Masumi ^[1]

Afiliação do(s) autor(es)

^[1] Univ Estadual Campinas, Dept Mat & Bioproc Engn, Sch Chem Engn, BR-13083852 Campinas, SP - Brazil

^[2] Univ Fed Sao Paulo, Dept Chem Engn, Environm Chem & Pharmaceut Sci Inst, BR-09913030 Diadema, SP - Brazil

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: International Journal of Biological Macromolecules; v. 128, p. 401-405, MAY 1 2019.
• Citações Web of Science: 1

Resumo

Freezing is an interesting technique to modify the mechanical properties and morphology of hydrogels. Konjac glucomannan (KGM) is a polysaccharide that has potential use in cutting-edge areas as biomaterials and tissue engineering. In this work, we deeply investigated the influence of freezing on KGM. For that, KGM hydrogels were frozen at several freezing rates and temperatures. Results show that the freezing rate was the most important factor in the final physical properties of the KGM hydrogels. Slow freezing rate produced structures with isotropic and large pores, while fast freezing resulted in hydrogels with small and aligned pores. In addition, hydrogels frozen at high temperature (-8 degrees C) exhibited higher penetration modulus than hydrogels frozen at low temperature (-28 degrees C), since dense polymer regions are formed due to higher molecules dehydration caused by slow freezing. KGM hydrogels that underwent freezing can be explored as scaffolds for tissue engineering, with improved structural and mechanical properties. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 13/18958-6 - Desenvolvimento de materiais microestruturados a partir de biopolímeros para obtenção de curativos de alto desempenho
• Beneficiário: Giovana Maria Genevro
• Modalidade de apoio: Bolsas no Brasil - Doutorado