Polymer-metal complexes based on gellan

Abstract

By dropwise adding solutions of gellan (Gll) or gellan + poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVAL) mixture into different metal salt solutions-FeCl3 · 6 H2O, FeCl2 · 4 H2O, CoCl 2 · 6 H2O, CuCl2 · 2 H 2O-at 30 °C under constant stirring, preparation of spherical microparticles based on polymer-metal complexes has been performed. FT-IR spectroscopy, TGA analysis and swelling measurements of these microparticles in water showed the influence of the metal type ions on their structure, thermal stability and water swelling capacity. The FT-IR spectroscopy allows to explain the mechanism of polymer-metal complexes formation and the optical microscopy showed that the microparticles obtained had good sphericity with average diameter ranging from 719 μm to 830 μm. The thermal stability of the polymer-metal complexes was found to be higher than that of the gellan.