Cinnamyl-Imine-Chitosan Hydrogels. Morphology Control

Abstract The study deals with the exploration of the possibilities to control the morphology of cinnamyl-imine-chitosan hydrogels in view of their bio-application. Three series of hydrogels were synthetized from chitosan of three different molecular weights and cinnamaldehyde, varying the molar ratio between the amine groups on chitosan and aldehyde functional groups. The hydrogel morphology has been monitored by scanning electron microscopy. The variation of the hydrogel morphology as a function of chitosan molecular weight, crosslinking degree, and incubation conditions has been monitored. It was concluded that there are multiple possibilities of tuning the morphology of these hydrogels in function of the targeted application.