| Abstract: | This work reports the fabrication of tragacanth and water soluble tragacanth (WST) through electrospraying technique. Tragacanth is a biocompatible and biodegradable carbohydrate with a wide range of applications. Suspensions of tragacanth in water and water‐ethanol (70:30) were electrosprayed successfully. Moreover, deesterified tragacanth (WST), which is highly water soluble, was also successfully electrosprayed. The results showed that electrospraying technique is capable of producing tragacanth nanoparticles with an average size in the range of 30 to 50 nm, depending on the electrospraying conditions. Water soluble tragacanth gave rise to even smaller nanoparticles. It was also found that lowering feed rate, increasing nozzle‐ collector distance, and increasing voltage decrease the average size of the electrosprayed tragacanth nanoparticles. The molecular weight of tragacanth and WST was measured to be 610 and 301 KDa, respectively. The electrosprayed tragacanth and WST nanoparticles showed moisture regain of 50% and 75%, respectively. These values are much higher than that of their normal powder form. Fourier transform infrared proved the absence of ester groups in the WST as a result of deesterification. X‐ray diffraction studies showed an amorphous microstructure for both tragacanth and WST before electrospraying. After electrospraying, the amorphous structure of the 2 showed some orientation. |
