Crosslinker-Free Hyaluronic Acid Aerogels
Daniel Aguilera, Laurianne Legay, Sytze Buwalda, Tatiana Budtova
Abstract
Aerogels based on hyaluronic acid (HA) were prepared without any chemical crosslinking by polymer dissolution, network formation via nonsolvent-induced phase separation, and supercritical CO2 drying. The influence of solution pH, concentration of HA, and type of nonsolvent on network volume shrinkage, aerogel density, morphology, and specific surface area was investigated. A marked dependence of aerogel properties on solution pH was observed: aerogels with the highest specific surface area, 510 m2/g, and the lowest density, 0.057 g/cm3, were obtained when the HA solution was at its isoelectric point (pH 2.5). This work reports the first results ever on neat HA aerogels and constitutes the background for their use as advanced materials for biomedical applications.