Hidrogel a base de nanocelulosa, óxido de grafeno y alginato de sodio para aplicaciones cosméticas.

Abstract

Natural polymers have biocompatibility and biodegradability properties and have applications in various fields of study. Among them we find cellulose, which has enormous availability on the planet and great potential for use in biomedical areas. In turn, among the polymers are polysaccharides, which can be used in the formulation of hydrogels. Alginate is an example of these, since through ionic crosslinking it can form hydrogels, making them easily accessible for encapsulation and cell recovery. Nanoparticles can also be added to obtain compounds with specific properties. On the other hand, research on graphene oxide (GO) has indicated that the material can inhibit the growth of bacterial colonies in addition to filtering ultraviolet radiation. For this reason, the objective of this work was to incorporate 0,2, 0,4, 0,8 and 1,0 wt% of GO to the formulation of the alginate hydrogel with nanocrystalline cellulose (CNC) from Eucalyptus, with the aim of to obtain a nanocomposite capable of filtering ultraviolet radiation. To characterize the GO, the CNC and the hydrogels, X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy studies were carried out, which corroborated that the synthesis were successful. To analyze the morphology of the CNC and its nanometric scale, transmission electron microscopy was performed. The thermal stability was evaluated by thermogravimetry showing that the hydrogels had a residual mass close to 50%. Using UV-Vis spectroscopy, it was verified that the 1.0% GO hydrogel had a high absorbance capacity for the ultraviolet range, similar to the commercial SPF 50+ protector used as a reference. Application tests were also carried out such as; antibacterial susceptibility by the agar diffusion method with Staphylococcus epidermidis, blood coagulation and hemolytic activity. The hydrogels did not present antibacterial activity, possibly due to the low concentration of GO used, on the other hand, they presented high cell viability, and UV filtering capacity, showing a promising compound for cosmetic and even technological applications.