Aerocellulose: new highly porous cellulose prepared from cellulose-NaOH aqueous solutions.

New highly porous pure cellulose aerogel-like material called "aerocellulose" was prepared from aqueous cellulose/NaOH solutions. Solutions were gelled to obtain shaped three-dimensional objects, then cellulose was regenerated and dried in supercritical conditions using CO2. The porosity of aerocellulose is higher than 95% with pore sizes distribution from a few tens of nanometers to a few tens of micrometers. The internal specific surface area is around 200-300 m2/g, and density ranges from 0.06 to 0.3 g/cm3, depending on the preparation conditions. The influence of cellulose DP and concentration, of the addition of a surfactant leading to solution foaming, of gelation conditions and the temperature and acidity of regenerating bath on the morphology of aerocellulose has been studied. The results are compared with another type of aerocellulose that was prepared from cellulose/NMMO solutions.