title: Development of a chitosan-based biofoam: application to the processing of a porous ceramic material.
abstract: Developing biofoams constitutes a challenging issue for several applications. The present study focuses on the development of a chitosan-based biofoam. Solutions of chitosan in acetic acid were dried under vacuum to generate foams with high-order structures. Chitosan concentration influenced significantly the morphology of developed porosity and the organization of pores in the material. Physico-chemical characterizations were performed to investigate the effects of chitosan concentration on density and thermal conductivity of foams. Even if chitosan-based biofoams exhibit interesting insulating properties (typically around 0.06 W·m(-1)·K(-1)), it has been shown that their durabilities are limited when submitted to a wet media. So, a way of application consists to elaborate a ceramic material with open porosity from a slurry prepared with an organic solvent infiltrating the porous network of the foam.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Ingénierie pour les Systèmes Complexes, CEMAGREF, Campus des Cézeaux 24 avenue des Landais-BP 50085, 63172 Aubière Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Jean-Denis
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Mathias
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tessier-Doyen
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Michaud
mesh_terms: D002516:Ceramics / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry*; D048271:Chitosan / Q000737:chemistry*; D016062:Porosity
chemical_list: D048271:Chitosan