| Summary: | The use of natural polysaccharides is especially attractive to the pharmaceutical industry because of their stability, availability, renewability and low toxicity. In this study, cellulose aerogels obtained from cellulose/ionic liquid solutions were prepared by supercritical drying with surface areas ranged from 154 to 434 m2 g−1, pore volume from 0.3 to 2.4 cm3 g−1 and pore diameter from 7.9 to 34 nm. Drug loading capacity was investigated by impregnating phytol as model compound into the aerogels, using supercritical CO2 at 100 bar, 40 °C and mass ratio of phytol per gram of aerogel 10:1. The quantity of drug present is consistent in each aerogel. The aerogel prepared from 2 wt% cellulose in [Emim][DEP] solution showed the highest loading capacity. The high amount of drug loaded (approx 50% w/w) in the cellulose aerogels prepared from ionic liquid solutions shows their potential uses in the pharmaceutical or medical industry. © 2017 Elsevier B.V.
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