Chitosan Inverted Colloidal Crystal scaffolds: Influence of molecular weight on structural stability
- Citation:
- João, Carlos, Ana Teresa Kullberg, Jorge Carvalho Silva, and João Paulo Borges. "Chitosan Inverted Colloidal Crystal scaffolds: Influence of molecular weight on structural stability." Materials Letters 193 (2017): 50-53.
Abstract:
Chitosan with three different molecular weights (538 ± 48, 229 ± 45 and 13 ± 3 kDa) was used to develop biodegradable Inverted Colloidal Crystal (ICC) scaffolds with uniform pore size and interconnected pore network. Mass loss and compression modulus were analyzed after hydrolytic degradation in order to understand the influence of molecular weight on structural and mechanical degradation of chitosan ICC structures. Results show that medium molecular weight chitosan (229 ± 45 kDa) retains ICC structure and compression modulus for an extended period (4 weeks) and is therefore the preferred one for the production of ICC for soft tissue engineering.