Sustainable non-cytotoxic ultra-light aerogel derived from waste tissue paper as an effective hemostatic agent.

Renewable biomass with porous architecture and large surface areas attracted considerable interest in biomedical research due to their biocompatibility and multifunctional applications. The present study envisages synthesizing sustainable ultra-light aerogels from renewable waste tissue paper by cross-linking polyvinyl alcohol and glyoxal. The compressed aerogel pellet with 2 wt% tissue paper exhibits an excellent swelling ratio and hydrostatic pressure of 5.18 in 7 s and 2.94 mmHg, respectively, thereby enhancing hemostatic performance. Moreover, the cytotoxicity studies revealed that the aerogel is non-toxic for the mouse embryo fibroblast with cell viability of 80% at an aerogel concentration of 200 μg/ml. Furthermore, the aerogel also exhibited a low thermal conductivity (0.017–0.038 W/mK). Thus, the synthesized aerogel was found to be an eco-friendly, non-cytotoxic hemostatic agent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]