Abstract
Nano chitin is a promising biocompatible material with wide applications. In this work, a fungal-derived nano chitin was prepared from Hericium erinaceus residue via mineral/protein purification and subsequent TEMPO-mediated oxidation. The structure, dispersity, and gelation ability of the prepared fungal nano chitin were studied. The results showed that the average length and width of the prepared fungal nano chitin were 336.6 nm and 6.4 nm, respectively, and the aspect ratio exceeded 50:1. The nano chitin retained the basic structure of chitin, while the crystallization index was improved. In addition, the dispersity of the nano chitin in aqueous media was evaluated by the effective diameter, and the polydispersion index was mainly affected by pH and ionic strength. Under acetic acid “gas phase coagulation”, the prepared nano chitin dispersions with mass concentrations of 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8% were converted into gels by enhanced hydrogen bond crosslinking between nano chitins.
Highlights
Natural polymers, such as cellulose and chitin, have been widely designed as hydrogels [1,2], films [3,4], catalysts [5,6], and adsorbents [7,8] due to their abundant reserves
The preparation of nano chitin from Hericium erinaceus residue was carried out using mineral/protein purification and subsequent Tetramylpiperidone oxide (TEMPO)-mediated oxidation
For transmission electron microscope (TEM) analysis, the nano chitin dispersion was dropped onto electron microscope grids coated with a carbon-reinforced formvar film, which were used for TEM observation
Summary
Natural polymers, such as cellulose and chitin, have been widely designed as hydrogels [1,2], films [3,4], catalysts [5,6], and adsorbents [7,8] due to their abundant reserves. Highpressure homogenization technology has been applied to obtain chitin nanofibers with uniform diameters [33] Compared with these mechanical methods, the TEMPO-mediated oxidation method has become a preferred method and has made considerable progress in the past few years [34,35,36]. This is because the completion of the TEMPO method does not require complicated equipment, and highly crystalline nano chitin can be obtained through a simple chemical modification process. The prepared nano chitin dispersion was transformed into a gel under acidic conditions, and the gelation mechanism was preliminarily described
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