title: Chitosan colloidal suspension composed of mechanically disassembled nanofibers.
abstract: Joint treatments of wet-grinding and high-pressure homogenization effectively disassembled chitosan particles into nanofibers by breaking the bond interactions between the chitosan crystalline fibrils using only strong mechanical force. We demonstrated the size reduction of chitosan fibers and characterized the properties and structure of the obtained nanofibrils. Results showed that the obtained nanofibers had a diameter of about 50nm, which comprised small bundles of nanofibrils with a diameter of 1-5nm. The zeta potential, viscosity, and stability of the nanofibrous suspension were studied and found to be dependent on the pH value of the aqueous media. Optical properties of the suspension were also characterized. After an isotropic-nematic phase transition, the chitosan nanofibrous colloids exhibited a nematic liquid crystal structure due to the layer-by-layer stacking of self-aligned nanofibers. The freeze-dried liquid crystalline colloids were shaped like a sponge with a wide-range of pore sizes and large surface areas, which could serve as an ideal tissue scaffold.
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China. dagangliu@gmail.com
authors.forename: Dagang
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Peter R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Mindong
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Qinglin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000737:chemistry*; D048271:Chitosan / Q000737:chemistry*; D003102:Colloids / Q000737:chemistry; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D050866:Liquid Crystals / Q000737:chemistry*; D057139:Nanofibers / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D010316:Particle Size; D044367:Phase Transition; D016062:Porosity; D013499:Surface Properties; D014783:Viscosity
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D003102:Colloids; D048271:Chitosan