Chitosan-based supramolecular aerogel with “skeletal structure” constructed in natural deep eutectic solvents for medical dressings

Abstract

Bacterial infection of wounds remains one of the major clinical challenges, calling for the urgent development of novel multifunctional biological dressings. In this study, we developed a chitosan-based supramolecular aerogel NADES/PVA/CS, constructed by hydrogen bonding between chitosan, a natural deep eutectic solvents and polyvinyl alcohol, as a novel wound dressing against bacterial infections. The effect of polyvinyl alcohol content and its incorporation within chitosan-based supramolecular aerogels were investigated. The results of antibacterial test and MTT assay showed that it has obvious inhibitory effect on Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, showing excellent biocompatibility and effectively promotes wound healing. The microstructure of chitosan-based supramolecular aerogel showed that by adjusting the addition amount of polyvinyl alcohol, it could exhibit a perfect skeleton-type 3D network structure, which also made it possess smaller density and larger porosity and exhibit excellent water absorption property, contributing to the wetting of wound surface. More importantly, chitosan-based supramolecular aerogel is an environment-friendly biomaterial, which has been verified by degradability experiment. In a word, these unique advantages provide a broad prospect for the medical application of chitosan-based supramolecular aerogel NADES/PVA/CS, and provide a new strategy for the construction of green polysaccharide medical materials.