Exploring the Kinetics of Gelation and Final Architecture of Enzymatically Cross-linked Chitosan/Gelatin Gels (original) (raw)

Biomacromolecules, 2015

Abstract

Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) was used to characterize the nano-scale structure of enzymatically cross-linked chitosan/gelatin hydrogels obtained from two protocols: a pure chemical cross-linking process (C), which uses the natural enzyme microbial transglutaminase, and a physical-co-chemical (PC) hybrid process, where covalent cross-linking is combined with the temperature-triggered gelation of gelatin, occurring through the formation of triple-helices. SANS measurements on the final and evolving networks provide a correlation length (ξ), which reflects the average size of expanding clusters. Their growth in PC gels is restricted by the triple-helices (ξ ~ 10s of Å) while ξ in pure chemical gels increases with cross-linker concentration (~ 100s of Å). In addition, the shear elastic modulus in PC gels is higher than in pure C gels. Our results thus demonstrate that gelatin triple helices provide a template to guide the cross-linking process; overall, this work provides impor...

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