Abstract
The capability of some polymers, such as chitosan, to form low cost gels under mild conditions is of great application interest. Ionotropic gelation of chitosan has been used predominantly for the preparation of gel beads for biomedical application. Only in the last few years has the use of this method been extended to the fabrication of chitosan-based flat structures. Herein, after an initial analysis of the major applications of chitosan flat membranes and films and their usual methods of synthesis, the process of ionotropic gelation of chitosan and some recently proposed novel procedures for the synthesis of flat structures are presented.
Highlights
Chitosan (Chit) flat structures have not been yet classified in literature and reviews on their methods of synthesis, properties and applications are still lacking
The capability of chitosan to turn pH values is fundamental for the fabri tionalities tailored for specific applicati formation is illustrated in Figure 2, to fabricate flat structures starting from s example in acetic acid) chitosan exists nation of its amine groups and breakin
Notwithstanding the fact that chitosan and some of its derived materials were discovered over two hundred years ago (1811), scientific research on their possible applications only started in 1983, when the N-deacetylation method to extract chitosan from chitin was proposed [56] and the number of related publications rapidly increased significantly in the 2000s
Summary
Chitosan (Chit) flat structures have not been yet classified in literature and reviews on their methods of synthesis, properties and applications are still lacking. The capability of ionotropic gelation technology to entrap a great number of functional materials in chitosan has not been sufficiently explored by the scientific literature in other fields of application, such as energy conversion and storage, where flat structures are needed. After a brief introduction to the properties of chitosan, the methods of synthesis and application of chitosan flat structures are reviewed with a detailed discussion of recent research studies. Novel procedures introduced in the last years based on chitosan ionotropic gelation methods to synthesize chitosan flat structures for both biomedical [8] and energy conversion applications [9] are commented. An Overview of Chitosan Properties and Methods of Synthesis of Flat Structures
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