Researcher at University of Siena in Italy have used Vac Coat?DSR1?sputter coater to study surface structure of dextrin-based adsorbent biopolymers used for water treatment.
The environmental safety of dextrin-based nanosponges, like cyclodextrin (CD) and maltodextrin (MD), is investigated in this research. These biopolymer nanosponges have shown promising adsorption properties, which benefit biomedical applications, cosmetics and food industry, as well as water remediation as adsorbent materials for the removal of toxic chemicals that will lead to their release into the natural environment.
The surface structure of nanosponges were studied by?scanning electron microscopy?(SEM) after metallization of the specimens’ surface with a 12 nm thin film of gold by Vac Coat DSR1 sputter coater as a sample preparation step. DSR1 is a desk magnetron sputter coater with a single cathode equipped with a?rotary pump?that is suitable for deposition of noble metals, mainly used for SEM sample preparation. The SEM characterization displayed smooth external surfaces and the absence of macro-porosity, as shown below.
The results revealed that exposure to both aquatic organisms and plants does not cause harm even at high concentrations of dextrin-based nanosponges and can be extended to all dextrin-based polymers with similar formulation and exposure levels in the range of mg/mL.
