From Cellulose Solutions to Aerogels and Xerogels: Controlling Properties for Drug Delivery.

A cheap and easy-to-recycle solvent, namely, aqueous NaOH with no additives, was used to dissolve cellulose and make cross-linker-free materials with varying porosity, testing them as drug delivery devices. Cellulose solutions were gelled, coagulated in a nonsolvent (water, ethanol), and dried either using supercritical CO (aerogels) or low-vacuum evaporation (named "xerogels"). Aerogels had densities of around 0.