| abstract |
There is provided a plastic or gel material comprising a mixture of: (a) a compound of formula (I) or a mixture of two or more compounds of formula (I), (M a+ )c(X b- )d or a hydrate thereof, wherein c and d can be 1, 2 or 3, M a+ is a Group I or II metal cation, X b- 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 X b- ; and (c) one or more polysaccharides, wherein each polysaccharide is a polymer of pyranose monomers, at least 30% of which monomers are in the α-anomeric conformation. There is also provided articles formed from such materials, uses of such materials and processes for forming such materials. |