Morphological investigations on polymer gels and on the sol-gel transition by means of freeze-etching method. 3

Employing the freeze-etching technique, the morphology of formation of ionotropic gels precipitated from aqueous Na-carboxymethyl cellulose solution by La+++, Pb++ and Al+++ ions has been investigated. Special attention is given to the early stages of the formation of capillary voids. After formation of a dense granular gel-layer between polymer solution and precipitant, capillary formation obviously starts from local changes of polymer concentration having a certain amount of regularity. In the further process of structural differentiation of the capillary voids the polymer matrix is desolvated and ordered into a fibrillar network. Assets and limitations of morphological investigations for elucidating the mechanism of ionotropic gel formation are discussed. (author)