In an aspect, a method for making a metal-containing material comprises steps of: forming a metal-containing hydrogel from an aqueous precursor mixture using a photopolymerization; wherein the aqueous precursor mixture comprises water, one or more aqueous photosensitive binders, and one or more aqueous metal salts; and thermally treating the metal-containing hydrogel to form the metal-containing material; wherein the metal-containing hydrogel is exposed to a thermal-treatment atmosphere during the step of thermally treating; wherein a composition of the metal-containing material is at least partially determined by a composition of the thermal-treatment atmosphere during the thermally treating step.

A system for controlling the ion content of a colloidal system. A porous deionizer is used to selectively remove and isolate ions from a colloidal system. The colloidal particles within the system have their attraction/repulsion tuned by control of the ion content to alter the interaction between the colloidal particles.

The invention relates to a method for treating nanofibrillar cellulose hydrogel, wherein the method comprises the steps of: providing a nanofibrillar cellulose hydrogel; and subjecting the nanofibrillar cellulose hydrogel to heat treatment, wherein the heat treatment comprises keeping the nanofibrillar cellulose hydrogel at a temperature of at least 130 C. for at least 0.5 seconds, for reducing the number of viable micro-organisms in the nanofibrillar cellulose hydrogel.

It is an object of the invention to provide an economically viable process for the production of hydrophobized aerogels which works both inexpensively and in a resource-conserving manner. 2.2. This object is achieved by the provision of a process for producing organically modified aerogels by producing a sol containing [SiO.sub.4/2] units and [R.sub.xSiO.sub.(4X)/2] a units, where x may be the same or different and is 1, 2 or 3, and R may be the same or different and is hydrogen or an organic substituted or unsubstituted radical, using the sol to form a gel, surface-modifying the gel obtained in the presence of more than 0.1% by weight of a phase modifier in a mixture comprising organosiloxane and initiator, wherein the mixture contains at least 20% by weight of organosiloxane and wherein the initiator consists of acid or organosiloxane or mixtures thereof and the gels obtained are dried. 2.3. The aerogels provided can be used as insulating materials, especially in thermal insulation.

Disclosed herein are systems for promoting healing of a wound or surgical incision at a medical device site (e.g., implanted medical device) in a subject, by administering a microporous gel to the medical implant site. Also disclosed are systems for the treatment and prevention of infection at a medical implant site in a subject, by administering a microporous gel to the medical implant site. The microporous gel may be fluidic during application and annealed or crosslinked after application. The microporous gels may contain various therapeutic agents, including antibiotics and analgesics, throughout the gel.

A system for recovering gel-mass from a gel-mass-containing waste material. The system includes mangle rolls, a heated accumulator for receiving and melting the gel-mass-containing waste material to provide an oil phase and a non-oil phase; a pumping system; an optional mixer; and a control system.

The invention relates to a method for treating a nanofibrillar cellulose hydrogel, wherein the method comprises the steps of: providing a nanofibrillar cellulose hydrogel, wherein the nanofibrillar cellulose is oxidized nanofibrillar cellulose, wherein the oxidation has been carried out through N-oxyl mediated catalytic oxidation of cellulose-based raw material, and has at most 50 mol of aldehyde groups per gram of dry nanofibrillar cellulose; and subjecting the nanofibrillar cellulose hydrogel to a heat treatment.

The present invention relates to a process for the preparation of Sevelamer carbonate from polyallylamine hydrochloride.

A hydrogel structure (10) includes: a continuous phase (11) of a first hydrogel; and a dispersion phase (12) of a second hydrogel, the dispersion phase being dispersed in the continuous phase (11). A ratio of a local minimum value of a load after break to a breaking load (a local minimum value of a load after break/a breaking load) of the hydrogel structure (10) is 0.1 or more.

A process and system for recovering gel-mass from a gel-mass-containing waste material. The process comprises retrieving the gel-mass-containing waste material from an encapsulation process; melting the retrieved waste material to provide an oil phase and a non-oil phase; retrieving the non-oil phase to produce a recovered gel-mass; and recycling the recovered gel-mass for combination with fresh encapsulating material to provide a combined encapsulating material for use in encapsulating a same lot of the same product which was being encapsulated in the step that produced the gel-mass-containing waste material from which the gel-mass was obtained. The system comprises a heated accumulator for receiving and melting the gel-mass-containing waste material to provide an oil phase and a non-oil phase; a pumping system; an optional mixer; and a control system.