Maria Schestakow

In the past decade, biopolymer aerogels have gained significant research attention due to their typical properties, such as low density and thermal insulation, which are reinforced with excellent biocompatibility, biodegradability, and ease of functionalization. Mechanical properties of these aerogels play an important role in several applications and should be evaluated based on synthesis parameters. To this end, preparation and characterization of polysaccharide-based aerogels, such as pectin, cellulose and k-carrageenan, is first discussed. An interrelationship between their synthesis parameters and morphological entities is established. Such aerogels are usually characterized by a cellular morphology, and under compression undergo large deformations. Therefore, a nonlinear constitutive model is proposed based on large deflections in microcell walls of the aerogel network. Different sizes of the microcells within the network are identified via nitrogen desorption isotherms. Damage is initiated upon pore collapse, which is shown to result from the failure of the microcell wall fibrils. Finally, the model predictions are validated against experimental data of pectin, cellulose, and k-carrageenan aerogels. Given the micromechanical nature of the model, a clear correlation—qualitative and quantitative—between synthesis parameters and the model parameters is also substantiated. The proposed model is shown to be useful in tailoring the mechanical properties of biopolymer aerogels subject to changes in synthesis parameters.

In this paper, a generalised micro-mechanical model capable of capturing the mechanical behaviour of polysaccharidic aerogels, in particular cellulose aerogels, is proposed. To this end, first the mechanical structure and properties of these highly nanoporous cellulose aerogels prepared from aqueous salt hydrate melts (calcium thiocyanate, Ca(SCN)₂·6H₂O and zinc chloride, ZnCl₂·4H₂O) are studied. The cellulose content within these aerogels is found to have a direct relation to the microstructural quantities such as the fibril length and diameter. This, along with porosity, appears to influence the resulting mechanical properties. Furthermore, experimental characterisation of cellulose aerogels was done using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), pore-size data analysis, and compression tests. Cellulose aerogels are of a characteristic cellular microstructures and accordingly a network formed by square shaped cells is considered in the micro-mechanical model proposed in this paper. This model is based on the non-linear bending and collapse of such cells of varying pore sizes. The extended Euler–Bernoulli beam theory for large deflections is used to describe the bending in the cell walls. The proposed model is physically motivated and demonstrates a good agreement with our experimental data of both ZnCl₂ and Ca(SCN)₂ based cellulose aerogels with different cellulose contents.

An environmentally benign electroless plating procedure enables a dense coating of silver nanoparticles onto complex cellulose aerogel structures. In the course of the nanoparticle deposition, the morphological characteristics of the aerogel are preserved, such as the continuous self-supporting network structure. While achieving a high metal loading, the large specific surface area as well as the low density is retained in the cellulose-metal aerogel composite. Due to the interesting features of cellulose aerogel substrates (e.g., the accessibility of its open-porous network) and electroless plating (e.g., the possibility to control the density, size, and composition of the deposited metal nanoparticles), the outlined synthetic scheme provides a facile and flexible route towards advanced materials in heterogeneous catalysis, plasmonics, and sensing.