Preparation and characterization of chitosan-alginate scaffolds as wound dressing applications

Alginate and chitosan are two such polysaccharides that have been widely examined for their use as biomaterial scaffolds in tissue regeneration. Alginate is a linear, negatively charged,water-soluble polysaccharide comprised of α-L guluronic acid and β-D mannuronic acid, which forms a hydrogel upon ioniccrosslinking with divalent cations such as calcium [1]. Chitosan is positively charged, composed of repeating units of (1,4)-linked β-D-glucosamine and is generally soluble in solutions with a pH below 6 [2]. When blended together, alginate and chitosan can form a hydrogel due to complicationof the polyelectrolytes. In this study, chitosan-alginate polyelectrolyte complex membranes are prepared in ourlaboratory by casting and drying suspension of chitosanalginate coacervates. The existed interactions between components are characterized by FTIR in detail. Water uptakeability is also assessed, kinetically. Our results show that some interactions such as H-bonding are existed. Kinetic study show that films reach to their maximum uptake in first hour and to their equilibrium uptake during one day and 0.3 M CaCl2 is chosen as an optimum crosslinking concentration.