Pressure enhanced self catalytic decomposition of alginic acid in high temperature high pressure water

藻酸盐是一种生物相容性聚合物，在医疗用途如药物输送系统的血管中具有很高的潜力。然而，对于更专业的用途，分子量需要控制在约10^3 g/mol。本文研究了海藻酸钠在高温高压水中的分解。在所考察的实验条件下，与需要添加酸或碱催化剂和长反应时间（小时）的传统分解方法相比，在短反应时间（<1 s）内，在不添加任何催化剂的情况下，可以实现海藻酸盐的分解至分子量大于~ 10^3g/mol。此外，我们发现反应条件的依赖性在产品海藻酸盐的单体含量。

Alginate is a biocompatible polymer that has high potential in medical uses such as vessels for drug delivery systems. However, for more specialized uses, the molecular weight needs to be controlled to around ~ 10^3 g/mol. In this work, we investigated the decomposition of alginate in high temperature high pressure water. Under the experimental conditions examined, the decomposition of alginate can be achieved to molecular weights above ~ 10^3g/mol in short reaction times (<1s)without any addition of catalysts, compared to conventional decomposition methods which require addition of acid or base catalyst and long reaction times (hours). Also, we found reaction condition dependencies in the monomer content of the product alginate.