Microporous monoliths obtained by supercritical drying of plant structures

• Parenchyma of parsley, celery and carrot was supercritically dried with scCO2.
• Low-density, firm porous monoliths with slightly changed cells size were obtained.
• Convection drying of parenchyma causes irreversible structure destruction.
• The material was stable during sorption of water vapor.

One of the research directions in the material engineering is the search for porous bodies with fine structure. Biotechnologies implementing natural products have a great potential in this field. Parenchyma tissue is the essential mass of the body of plant organisms and among all tissues is the most similar to nondiversified primary cells. Classical methods for drying of tender materials result in deforming the dried structure during water evaporation. The structure of the plant organism can be preserved due to drying in supercritical conditions. The research material was the parenchyma tissue of the root of parsley (Petroselinum sativum), celery (Apium graveolens) and carrot (Daucus carota). The material was dried by supercritical CO2 method. The size and shape of plant samples changed slightly with 2–10% decrease in volume. The structure of the material obtained was studied using light and scanning electron microscopy and its stability in relation to water vapor was examined using a gravimetric sorption method with high-vacuum line.

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