Chitosan–Gelatin Films: Plasticizers/Nanofillers Affect Chain Interactions and Material Properties in Different Ways

Abstract

Biopolymers, which are biodegradable and inherently functional, have high potential for specialized applications (e.g., disposable and transient systems and biomedical treatment). For this, it is important to create composite materials with precisely defined chain interactions and tailored properties. This work shows that for a chitosan–gelatin material, both glycerol and isosorbide are effective plasticizers, but isosorbide could additionally disrupt the polyelectrolyte complexation (PEC) between the two biopolymers, which greatly impacts the glass transition temperature (Tg), mechanical properties, and water absorption. While glycerol-plasticized samples without nanofiller or with graphene oxide (GO) showed minimal water uptake, the addition of isosorbide and/or montmorillonite (MMT) made the materials hydrolytically unstable, likely due to disrupted PEC. However, these samples showed an opposite trend in surface hydrophilicity, which means surface chemistry is controlled differently from chain structure. This work highlights different mechanisms that control the different properties of dual-biopolymer systems and provides an updated definition of biopolymer plasticization, and thus could provide important knowledge for the future design of biopolymer composite materials with tailored surface hydrophilicity, overall hygroscopicity, and mechanical properties that meet specific application needs.

A Study of Isosorbide Synthesis from Sorbitol for Material Applications Using Isosorbide Dimethacrylate for Enhancement of Bio-Based Resins

“…Isosorbide is a very promising molecule for a vast amount of different applications including medical [1,2], plasticizing [3][4][5], materials [6,7], or flame retardants [8][9][10]. This molecule is synthesized and manufactured from various starting substances.…”

Complex Bioactive Chitosan–Bioglass Coatings on a New Advanced TiTaZrAg Medium–High-Entropy Alloy

“…Chitosan, as a biodegradable polymer, is inherently biocompatible and functional. In a composite material, it can contribute to defined interactions and tailored properties, such as the balance between hydrophilic/hydrophobic characteristics and antibacterial effects [20]. Chitosan is a natural cationic polysaccharide polymer derived from chitin that has been widely used as the organic component of organic-inorganic composite coatings.…”

Extraction of Chitosan from <i>L. squarrosulus</i> (Mushroom) and <i>C. africana</i> (Shrimp) Based and Production of Film Polymer

“…These include bioactivity (Sultankulov et al, 2019), antimicrobial and antifungal activity (Deka et al, 2015;Verlee et al,2017), immunestimulation (Torres et al, 2019), chemotactic action, enzymatic biodegradability, muco-adhesion, and epithelial permeability (Ways et al,2018), which promote the adhesion and proliferation of various cell types (Laroche et al, 2018). To expand its potential applications, CS has recently been created in a number of different forms for wastewater treatment, including films (Frantz et al, 2017;Rizzi et al 2018), microcapsules (Tong, 2017), composites (Xie et al, 2013;Duan et al, 2022), nanoparticles (Sivakami et al, 2013), and nanofibers (Nthunya et al, 2017). CS can be utilised efficiently as a film-forming material for food packaging (Wang et al, 2018), wound dressing (Liu et al, 2018), and medication delivery applications (Elassal and El-Manofy, 2019) due to its superior film-forming characteristic.…”

“…To increase the flexibility of the film, blending is an easy and practical way (Singh et al, 2015). CS has been combined with a number of plasticisers, including fatty acids, polyethylene glycol, glycerol, sorbitol, and erythritol (Jridi et al, 2014;Duan et al, 2022). The flexibility of the chitosan films may differ depending on the types and quantities of plasticisers utilised.…”