Ultra-short laser pulse modification of chitosan/silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) thin films for potential antimicrobial applications

Abstract

The last several years witnessed increasingly rapid advances in applying biopolymers in tissue engineering for the purposes of regenerative medicine. The growing demand for preparing materials with desired physical, biological and mechanical properties requires active investigations in the field of tissue engineering. Among the wide variety of biopolymers, chitosan proved to be an outstanding material due to its properties, such as biocompatibility, biodegradability and a wide range of available fabrication technologies. The present work is a case study of an extensive research on the functionalization of thin biopolymer films via laser patterning. The aim of the current study is to investigate the optical properties of biopolymer films on the example of chitosan and chitosan with silver nanoparticles additives. As laser sources are used a nano- and a femto-second laser system emitting the wavelengths of 355 nm and 800 nm, respectively. The compositions produced are investigated by spectral analyses using spectrometers and an optical microscope. Furthermore, the morphology of the samples is monitored by SEM analyses. The results obtained demonstrate the potential of the method employed for obtaining diverse porous modifications depending on the laser parameters. Adding silver nanoparticles will drastically increase the thin chitosan films’ antimicrobial properties, thus enhancing the biocompatibility properties of the 2D matrices created.