{"title":"Chitin Nanocomposites for Medical Applications","authors":"A. Mathew, K. Oksman","doi":"10.1002/9783527610419.NTLS0218","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Chitin, a natural polysaccharide found widely in crustaceans and insects, may be while extensively deacetylated to produce chitin. As chitin/chitosan is nontoxic, biosorbable, antibacterial, bioactive and biocompatible, it has emerged as an interesting and unique polymer for the production of hydrogels, films, fibers, sponges, etc., for a variety of applications. These materials have shown potential in biomedical applications, including tissue engineering, drug delivery, wound dressing, bone substitution, and sutures. Chitin is highly crystalline, and therefore less reactive and insoluble in solvents, while chitosan has a low stability in aqueous environments and is pH-sensitive, which limits its potential use in commercial applications or products. Hence, both physical and chemical treatments and manipulations are required to develop useful products based on the chitin biopolymer. During recent years, several chitin-based nanocomposites have been developed, where chitin acts as the matrix phase or reinforcing phase in the form of nanocrystals. This chapter describes chitosan-based nanocomposites as a novel group of biomaterials with the potential to support and facilitate cell growth, for controlled drug delivery, and as biosensors to detect glucose, creatine, etc., in the body. Details are included of nanocomposites developed for biomedical applications, where carbon nanotubes, inorganic metal nanoparticles or montmorillonite-based and biobased nanowhiskers (chitin or cellulose) are used to provide reinforcement in chitosan matrices. The processing methodologies reported to date, as well as the applications of these biobased nanocomposites, are summarized. Finally, the progress, limitations, and the future possibilities in this area are discussed. \n \n \nKeywords: \n \nchitin; \nchitosan; \nnanocomposites; \nprocessing; \nbiocompatibility; \nmedical applications","PeriodicalId":312946,"journal":{"name":"Nanotechnologies for the Life Sciences","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2012-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"3","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Nanotechnologies for the Life Sciences","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1002/9783527610419.NTLS0218","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 3
Abstract
Chitin, a natural polysaccharide found widely in crustaceans and insects, may be while extensively deacetylated to produce chitin. As chitin/chitosan is nontoxic, biosorbable, antibacterial, bioactive and biocompatible, it has emerged as an interesting and unique polymer for the production of hydrogels, films, fibers, sponges, etc., for a variety of applications. These materials have shown potential in biomedical applications, including tissue engineering, drug delivery, wound dressing, bone substitution, and sutures. Chitin is highly crystalline, and therefore less reactive and insoluble in solvents, while chitosan has a low stability in aqueous environments and is pH-sensitive, which limits its potential use in commercial applications or products. Hence, both physical and chemical treatments and manipulations are required to develop useful products based on the chitin biopolymer. During recent years, several chitin-based nanocomposites have been developed, where chitin acts as the matrix phase or reinforcing phase in the form of nanocrystals. This chapter describes chitosan-based nanocomposites as a novel group of biomaterials with the potential to support and facilitate cell growth, for controlled drug delivery, and as biosensors to detect glucose, creatine, etc., in the body. Details are included of nanocomposites developed for biomedical applications, where carbon nanotubes, inorganic metal nanoparticles or montmorillonite-based and biobased nanowhiskers (chitin or cellulose) are used to provide reinforcement in chitosan matrices. The processing methodologies reported to date, as well as the applications of these biobased nanocomposites, are summarized. Finally, the progress, limitations, and the future possibilities in this area are discussed.
Keywords:
chitin;
chitosan;
nanocomposites;
processing;
biocompatibility;
medical applications