Chitosan (CS) is a semi-synthetic polysaccharide derived from the most abundant naturally occurring polymer, chitin. It has found applications in fields as diverse as health, cosmetics, agriculture, environmental remediation etc. While biodegradability is important for non-toxic polymer-based material, stable and mechanically resilient chitosan is needed for harsh environmental applications. We synthesized a nano-chitosan derivative (LA-CS-Suc) with comparable thermal stability as the parent polymer. Synthesis involved chemically linking an organic acid to CS via carbodiimide chemistry. LA-CS-Suc was characterized by FT-IR, TGA, DSC and DLS. Cellular toxicity was also carried out. Successful conjugation was confirmed by FT-IR spectroscopy. Thermal stability was comparable to parent polymer. LA-CS-Suc had particle sizes ranging from 215 to 320 nm and they showed no cellular toxicity.
Reference:
Matshe, W.M.R., Tshweu, L.L. and Balogun, M.O. 2018. Synthesis of a novel amphiphilic nano-chitosan material. Conference of the South African Advanced Materials Initiative (CoSAAMI-2018), Vanderbijlpark, South Africa, 23-26 October 2018
Matshe, W. M., Tshweu, L. L., & Balogun, M. O. (2018). Synthesis of a novel amphiphilic nano-chitosan material. IOP Publishing Ltd. http://hdl.handle.net/10204/10530
Matshe, William MR, Lesego L Tshweu, and Mohammed O Balogun. "Synthesis of a novel amphiphilic nano-chitosan material." (2018): http://hdl.handle.net/10204/10530
Matshe WM, Tshweu LL, Balogun MO, Synthesis of a novel amphiphilic nano-chitosan material; IOP Publishing Ltd; 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10204/10530 .
