Interpenetrating network formation in gellan--agarose gel composites

Thermal, mechanical, turbidity, and microscope evidence is provided which strongly suggests molecular interpenetrating network (IPN) formation by mixtures of the bacterial and seaweed polysaccharides gellan and agarose. There is no evidence for synergistic coupling of the networks, and simple phase separation (demixing) can definitely be ruled out. Some changes in the gellan gelling behavior are suggested, however, by the increased gellan effective concentrations implicit in cure curve data. The dependence of this effect on the agarose nominal concentration seems consistent with a previous model that focused on gelling parameters, and changes in these rather than real concentration effects. In large deformation mechanical tests, the influence of agarose added to gellan is to re-enforce the network (higher compression and shear moduli, higher stresses-to-break) without significantly changing the strain to break, or the gellan brittle failure mechanism.