The biocompatibility, the antibacterial and antifungal properties of chitosan combined with the high specific surface area and the controlled porosity of aerogels are very attractive in biomedical applications such as wound healing, tissue engineering and controlled drug release. In this work, we investigate the influence of processing conditions on the properties of chitosan aerogels. Highly porous and nanostructured chitosan aerogels were prepared via dissolution, non-solvent induced phase separation, solvent exchange and drying with supercritical CO2. No crosslinker was used in this process. Chitosan concentration, composition of coagulation bath and time of aging were varied. The results showed that chitosan concentration in solution and the composition of the coagulation bath are the main parameters to tune samples’ shrinking, density and specific surface area, the latter varied from 250 to 450 m2/g. A mesoporosity and a macroporosity were observed by SEM; bulk density varied from 0.06 to 0.26 g/cm3 and absorption of simulated wound exudate from 200 to 600%. Mechanical behaviour was characterized under uniaxial compression and cyclic loading. Cytotoxicity tests were performed in the view of biomedical applications.

Tunable structure and properties of chitosan aerogels

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

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