Physical-chemical properties of cross-linked chitosan electrospun fiber mats

Chitosan fiber mats were successfully processed by electrospinning. The as-spun fiber mats were neutralized with ethanol and cross-linked with glutaraldehyde. A decrease of the fiber average diameter from 243 +/- 43 nm down to 215.53 nm was observed for the neutralized and cross-linking chitosan membrane. It was found that the processing conditions do not alter the initial deacetylation degree of the polymer. Polymer crystallinity index showed a decrease from 61% for the Protasan material down to 17% for the cross-linking fiber mats. A swelling index up to 1000% was observed for the cross-linked samples. Preliminary MC-3T3-E1 cell culture results showed good cell adhesion and proliferation in the cross-linked chitosan fiber mats.This work is funded by FEDER funds through the "Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade - COMPETE" and by national funds by FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia, project references NANO/NMed-SD/0156/2007. V.S. and SM thanks the FCT grants SFRH/BPD/63148/2009 and SFRH/BPD/64726/2009, respectively. The authors also thank the support of the COST Action MP1003, 2010 'European Scientific Network for Artificial Muscles' (ESNAM). JLGR acknowledge the support of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through project No. MAT2010-21611-C03-01 (including the FEDER financial support) and Programa Nacional de Internacionalizacion de la I+D project EUI2008-00126. The authors also thank the National NMR Network (National Program for Scientific Re-equipment, REDE/1517/RMN/2005, funds from POCI 2010 (FEDER) and FCT) and Microscopy Service of the UPV for the use of their lab.Sencadas, VJGDS.; Correia, D.; Ribeiro, C.; Moreira, S.; Botelho, G.; Gómez Ribelles, JL.; Lanceros Mendez, S. (2012). Physical-chemical properties of cross-linked chitosan electrospun fiber mats. Polymer Testing. 31(8):1062-1069. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polymertesting.2012.07.0101062106931