Physicochemical and nanomechanical investigation of electrodeposited chitosan:PEO blends

Abstract

Cathodic electrodeposition is a bottom up process that is emerging as a simple yet efficient strategy to engineer thin polymeric films with well-defined physicochemical properties. In particular, this technique offers the distinctive advantage of an easy control over composition, thickness, and morphology of the films by simply adjusting treatment parameters. In this work, cathodic electrodeposition was exploited to engender blends composed by chitosan (CH) and poly-ethylene-oxide (PEO) with different weight ratios. The physicochemical and nanomechanical properties of the resulting films were successively characterized by integrating Raman and Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy with Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). Our findings demonstrate that electro-deposition is an effective technique for the co-deposition of CH:PEO blends. Moreover, spectroscopic and AFM analyses correlated the physicochemical (i.e. structural organization, bond formation and cross-linking) and nanomechanical properties of the blends to the PEO content, ultimately unveiling the molecular interactions and mechanisms involved in the cathodic deposition of CH:PEO film

Modulating the elution of antibiotics from nanospongy titanium surfaces with a pH-sensitive coating

“…In order to probe the physicochemical characteristics of the coating and ensure that a successful deposition occurred, we exploited ATR-FTIR spectroscopy to investigate the structural properties of the blend. 36,42,43 During peak assignment, we were not able to resolve the Amide II band since it overlapped with the Amide I, a phenomenon previously observed in cases where the content of chitosan in the blend is below 20%. 36 Table 1 reports the infrared band assignment.…”

“…From these, we selected 20 curves per image (totalling 60 curves per condition), which were successively converted into force vs. indentation depth in order to calculate the stiffness values, according to a previously published procedure. 35,36 Ultraviolet-visible (UV-VIS) spectroscopy…”

“…Infrared data were processed by using the OriginPro soware and interpretation was carried out based on previous literature. 36,42,43 Spectra were normalized against the band centered at about 1095 cm À1 . (Fig.…”

Hierarchical microchannel architecture in chitosan/bioactive glass scaffolds via electrophoretic deposition positive‐replica

“…Stainless steel sheets were used as cathode in an EPD cell: electrodes were positioned at distance of 10 mm in a custom‐made EPD cell. In order to obtain a scaffold with an ordered array of micro‐channels, stainless steel cathodes with 500 μm circular holes, spaced by 700 μm (center to center), were fabricated via micro‐milling …”

“…In order to obtain a scaffold with an ordered array of micro-channels, stainless steel cathodes with 500 μm circular holes, spaced by 700 μm (center to center), were fabricated via micro-milling. 6,34 The deposition process was performed at pH of 3.4 and by applying a square-voltage (V H = 100 V, V L = 75 V, duty cycle D = 0.166). 35 The scaffolds were easily peeled-off from the substrate, washed three times in de-ionized water and freeze-dried (Freeze drier Lio 5Pascal) for 24 h (T = −40 C, p ≤ 0.5 mbar).…”