Preparation of α-chitin nanofiber-based hydrogels under alkali treatment
In this study,both α-chitin powders and nanofibers were successfully dissolved in NaOH solutions at low temperatures.Elemental analysis confirmed that this NaOH-freezing treatment didn”t cause deacetylation of chitin.After heating and neutralizing with water,chitin hydrogels could be prepared.X-ray diffraction and FE-SEM data demonstrated that these two hydrogels formed typical regenerated micro-porous structures with low crystallinity which was caused by dissolution process.Based on this result,cold ethanol was used for α-chitin nanofibers during the initial stages of neutralization which effectively prevented the dissolution and decrease in crystallinity,and was even able to preserve the continuous network structure of original nanofiber.This gelation behavior seems to be attributed to interdigitation and aggregation between neighboring nanofibers in cold alkali solution leading to the shrinkage of hydrogel.In general,by avoiding dissolution process,high crystalline hydrogel based on α-chitin nanofibers was prepared by a simple NaOH treatment without use of any other chemical solvents or cross-linking agents.We expect this new type of hydrogel could be promoted to wide applications and researches as novel green nanomaterials.
α-chitin nanofiber Hydrogel NaOH treatment Low temperatures Interdigitation
Chuchu Chen Dagang Li Hiroyuki Yano Kentaro Abe
College of Materials Science and Engineering,Nanjing Forestry University,Nanjing 210037,China Sustainable Humanosphere,Kyoto University,Uji 611-0011,Japan
国内会议
南京
英文
1-14
2015-10-18（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）