This work focuses on the state-of-art of the production of polysaccharide-based aerogels with emphasis on the influence of processing parameters on the resulting end material properties. Different gel concentrations were prepared ‎from ‎the two precursors: alginate and starch. The alginate gels were prepared in the form of beads and CaCl2 was used as a cross linker, while the starch gels were prepared in cylindrical shapes without using any cross linker. Different samples of each concentration were placed in different ethanol/water solutions. The resulting gels were dried using a supercritical drying unit forming hard solid aerogels and the surface area of each sample was measured using the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET). The results showed that the surface area of the alginate is much greater than that of the starch, thus being a better drug carrier. The presented technique allows also the reduction of the gelation time.
 

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