| abstract |
A plastic or gel material comprises a mixture of: (a) a compound of formula (I) or a mixture of two or more compounds of formula (Ma+)c(Xb-)d or a hydrate thereof, wherein c and d can be 1, 2 or 3, Ma+ is a Group I or II metal cation, X is a monovalent, bivalent or trivalent anion; (b) one or more uncharged organic compounds, each of which compounds comprises at least one oxygen atom and at least one hydrogen atom that is capable of forming a hydrogen bond with M or X of (a), and (c) one or more polysaccharides, wherein each polysaccharide is a polymer of pyranose monomers, at least 30% of which monomers are in the a-anomeric conformation. There is also provided articles formed from such materials, uses of such materials and processes for forming such materials. In preferred examples (a) is borax, CaCl2, MgCl2 or NaCl, while (b) is glycerol. |