Novel agarose and agar fibers: Fabrication and characterization

In this study, natural agarose and agar polysaccharides were successfully developed to novel fibrous form for the first time via wet-spinning. Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO)/H 2O = 9:1(v/v) mixture was used as an appropriate solvent which was amenable to the wet-spinning process that produced continuous agarose and agar fibers in ethanol coagulation bath. Results of SEM investigation, swelling ratio and tensile test suggested that the smooth and homogeneous agarose fibers had considerable water swelling capacity (400–500%) and tensile strength (30–50 MPa). The agar fiber showed better water swelling capacity than the agarose fiber; however the existence of agaropectin leads to its flexibility flaws. These results demonstrate that the agarose fiber fabricated in this study is a good candidate material for wound-dressing applications.