stable foams comprised of starch and chitosan in polyelectrolyte complexation

Chen, Caini

stable foams comprised of starch and chitosan in polyelectrolyte complexation

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Author:: Chen, Caini
Graduate Program:: Agricultural and Biological Engineering
Degree:: Master of Science
Document Type:: Master Thesis
Date of Defense:: November 09, 2022
Committee Members:: Suat Irmak, Program Head/Chair
Jeffrey M Catchmark, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Sibel Irmak, Committee Member
Ramaswamy C Anantheswaran, Committee Member
Keywords:: chitosan
starch
polyelectrolyte complexation
foam
potato
microwave expansion
extrusion
crosslinking
Abstract:: An effective biocompatible biodegradable wound dressing material can promote healing and save lives. In today’s market, bio-based wound dressing products still exhibit various problems such as ineffective application or difficulty of removal. Chitosan (CH), a natural polysaccharide that is derived from chitin, has been widely studied and used in the biomedical field due to its biocompatible, biodegradable, non-toxic, and hemostatic properties. In a previous study, a high-performance biodegradable dry foam with chitosan and potato starch (PS) was successfully developed using a microwave expansion process (Deng & Catchmark, 2014). This foam composite exhibited a high solution uptake ratio and did not dissolve in aqueous solutions for over 5 days of study. In this study, foams made with an extrusion-cooking process was compared to foams produced using microwave expansion methods for scale-up production. Glycerol has been used as a plasticizer to improve the flexibility of starch-based biofilm (Tarique, Sapuan, & Khalina, 2021). In this study, glycerol plasticization was used to increase foam flexibility which allows it to be used for wound dressing purposes. The results showed that using microwave-expanded foams have higher solution uptake behavior and are more stable as compared to extruded foam. The results also showed that the mechanical stability of the foam can be improved by increasing the chitosan content.

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