Adsorption properties and physical characterization of carrageenan/alginate macro and microspheres blended with flexible chain polymers

Abstract

This work addresses the production and characterization of alginate-carrageenan matrixes, cross-linked with epichlorohydrin in the presence of different flexible chain polymers: polyvinyl alcohol and polyvinyl pyrrolidine. These matrixes were obtained by ionotropic gelation in two different sizes: macro and microspheres. The different systems were characterized by optical microscopy, SEM and TGA. The obtained matrixes showed differences in their water content, shape and roughness due to the addition of flexible chain polymers into their composition. These matrixes were used for the adsorption of lysozyme. The adsorption process was found to follow a first order kinetics model and was not influenced by the type of polymer attached. In addition, the Langmuir model was the most suitable isotherm model for our data. The addition of polyvinyl alcohol and polyvinyl pyrrolidone decreases the adsorption capacity of the original matrixes, in both macro and micro scale. Finally, it was shown that when decreasing the size of the spheres, their adsorption capacity increases up to 5 times.