• Macromolecular Research
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• 제16권8호
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• pp.734-740
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• 2008

A new crosslinked, poly(acrylic acid)-based, dehydrating agent was synthesized through solution polymerization. The Taguchi method, a robust experimental design, was adopted to optimize the synthetic conditions based on the moisture and water absorbing capacities of the dehydrating agent. The method applied for the experiment was a standard L27 ($3^8$) orthogonal array with eight parameters and three levels. By analyzing the variance of the test results, the most effective parameters to control the moisture absorbing capacity (MAC) and its rate were the kind of alkaline base (LiOH, NaOH, or KOH) used as a neutralizing agent of the acrylic acid monomer and the degree of neutralization: The maximum MAC of 40% was achieved at only 2 hat $32^{\circ}C$ and 50% RH when KOH was used as a base and the degree of neutralization was 90%, respectively. However, the water absorbing capacity (WAC) of the resulting dehydrating agent was very low at 158 g/g, indicating that WAC is unaffected by MAC and its rate in this system. The surface morphologies of the agents were examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM).

• KSBB Journal
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• 제28권6호
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• pp.356-365
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• 2013

The novel Aloe gels were prepared with dewatering and impregnation by soaking (DIS) processing of Aloe vera leaf slice at four different temperatures (25, 35, 45 and $55^{\circ}C$), using dehydration solution of 40% (w/v) polyethylene glycol (PEG4000). The PEG-impregnation to Aloe vera leaf slice during DIS was observed depending on immersion temperature, and the PEG-impregnated Aloe vera gel (PEG-i-AVG) obtained was characterized using $^1H$ NMR, FT-IR, GPC, XRD and TGA. The PEG-i-AVG had the higher levels of Aloe bioactives (glucomannan and O-acetyl contents) and better quality indices by $^1H$ NMR and FT-IR spectroscopy than those of native Aloe gel. Also, the obtained Aloe gel maintained the bimodal patterns in higher molecular weight region by GPC indicating no degradation of polysaccharide from native Aloe gel. The result observed by SEM confirmed a surface modification by forming the porous structure, and TGA result exhibited better thermal stability than that of native Aloe gel. XRD result revealed that the crystalline structure in Aloe gel was led by incorporation of PEG. Significant decrease of %insolubility and high enhancement of water solubility index were observed, respectively, and highly ordered conformation such as a helix structure was also indicated by Congo red reaction. We concluded that the modification effect for enhancing function of native Aloe gel was successfully obtained by DIS process using PEG as a dehydrating agent. These results suggested that this DIS process had a high potential for developing a new minimally processed product from Aloe vera leaf.