Recent Progress in Polysaccharide Aerogels: Their Synthesis, Application, and Future Outlook

Abstract

Porous polysaccharides have recently attracted attention due to their porosity, abundance, and excellent properties such as sustainability and biocompatibility, thereby resulting in their numerous applications. Recent years have seen a rise in the number of studies on the utilization of polysaccharides such as cellulose, chitosan, chitin, and starch as aerogels due to their unique performance for the fabrication of porous structures. The present review explores recent progress in porous polysaccharides, particularly cellulose and chitosan, including their synthesis, application, and future outlook. Since the synthetic process is an important aspect of aerogel formation, particularly during the drying step, the process is reviewed in some detail, and a comparison is drawn between the supercritical CO2 and freeze drying processes in order to understand the aerogel formation of porous polysaccharides. Finally, the current applications of polysaccharide aerogels in drug delivery, wastewater, wound dressing, and air filtration are explored, and the limitations and outlook of the porous aerogels are discussed with respect to their future commercialization.

Seaweed-Derived Alginate–Cellulose Nanofiber Aerogel for Insulation Applications

“…This, in comparison to the multiple processing steps, including chemicals and energy, is needed for the extraction of alginate and CNFs separately, 10 , 31 or to existing aerogel assembly methods. 53 However, a life cycle assessment would be required to establish the environmental impact from seaweed to aerogel. From an environmental perspective, the largest contributors to the environmental burden of nanofiber production have been identified as chemicals and energy.…”

“…Separation of nanofibers rich in alginate directly from seaweed, combined with ice-templating and freeze-drying, followed by Ca 2+ crosslinking can offer an eco-efficient approach from the raw material to the high-performance aerogel. This, in comparison to the multiple processing steps, including chemicals and energy, is needed for the extraction of alginate and CNFs separately, , or to existing aerogel assembly methods . However, a life cycle assessment would be required to establish the environmental impact from seaweed to aerogel.…”

Marine Polysaccharides for Wound Dressings Application: An Overview

“…Aerogel is a porous, ultra-lightweight material with high mechanical strength [436,437]. The large specific surface area of aerogels allows for better utilisation of the bioactivities of MPs molecules [438]. Recent studies have shown that CS-based aerogels have excellent haemostatic, antibacterial and growth-promoting activities [439][440][441].…”

The Importance of Precursors and Modification Groups of Aerogels in CO2 Capture

“…Hence, aerogels can be broadly classified according to their precursors as organic, inorganic and hybrid, as shown schematically in Figure 1 . Due to their biosafety, availability, and biodegradability, the focus recently increases on the development of bio-aerogels derived from natural polysaccharides, such as cellulose, chitosan and lignin [ 5 ]. Moreover, hybrid aerogels featuring multi-components that show enhanced performance and multi-functional aspects have attracted more interest recently.…”