math - 26-7-2012 at 15:47
Hello,
I'd like to know if there is any method available to home experimenters and limited resources to successfully make SEAgel.
The freeze-drying part looks particularly expensive for a home lab, otherwise everything else should be pretty affordable 
Thank you
Diablo - 27-7-2012 at 03:51
Heres a video for the freeze drying part http://benkrasnow.blogspot.com/2012/01/freeze-drying-jello-g...
math - 27-7-2012 at 16:09
Thanks for the link.
So, from my limited understanding, the freeze-drying part of making SEAgel (see patent in the 2nd link) does nothing but just drying the gel in frozen
conditions?
If so, wouldn't a sealed container in which vacuum was created and containing nothing but SEAgel be enough to obtain the end product? Or does this
process need a continuous vacuum in order to be effective and achieve the same result?
Freeze Drying/lyophilizing
ChemGradStudent - 28-7-2012 at 02:42
Freeze drying is simply an easy way to remove water, it also makes the product light and fluffy as opposed to a when you rotovap it down which will
leave you with a more dense product.
You can think of freeze drying as a sort of vacuum distillation/sublimation. You really need some sort of cold surface (-78C range) for the water to
condense onto, it both increases effectiveness and keeps water out of your vacuum pump.
ChemGradStudent - 29-7-2012 at 06:33
Appologies, I didn't really answer your question. Yes, you need continuous vacuum. The lyophilizing process takes a day and a very low vacuum, so a
good pump will need to be used for the duration.