Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Morphology and gelation of thermosensitive chitosan hydrogels

2005; Elsevier BV; Volume: 117; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.bpc.2005.03.009

1873-4200

Kylie Crompton, R.J. Prankerd, David M. Paganin, Thomas F. Scott, Malcolm Horne, David I. Finkelstein, Kārlis-Agris Gross, John S. Forsythe,

Proteins in Food Systems

The morphology of physical hydrogels is often difficult to examine due to the delicate nature of the system and therefore has not been studied in detail. Chitosan/GP (glycerophosphate salt) is a significant hydrogel in the biomedical and cosmetic fields as it is thermosensitive and contains less than 5% polysaccharide. The morphology of this system was examined with laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM) to image the gel morphology. The images indicate that the gel is quite heterogeneous, and power spectra reveal a fractal-like morphology. A study of composition found that increasing chitosan concentration increased the amount of polymer-rich phase present in the gel, and that the smallest aggregates decreased in size.