Issue 34, 2020, Issue in Progress

Honeycomb-like porous chitosan films prepared via phase transition of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) during water evaporation under ambient conditions

Abstract

Honeycomb-like porous chitosan (CS) films are attractive tools for developing functional materials for filters, catalyses, adsorbents, biomaterials, etc. A simple method for fabricating honeycomb-like porous CS films without special reagents, facilities, and techniques would make them accessible. Here we introduce an easily available method for fabricating honeycomb-like CS films without a strong acid/base, toxic reagents, or special facilities/techniques. An aqueous solution containing CS and poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAm) was allowed to stand at 25 °C to evaporate water. After 3 days, CS–PNIPAm composite films with homogenously phase-separated PNIPAm particles were obtained. The PNIPAm particles were removed by immersion in methanol, and the resulting films dried under reduced pressure to become honeycomb-like porous CS films. The pore size could be varied in the range of 0.5–3.0 μm by altering the CS concentration and the molecular weight of CS where the pore size was reduced under conditions with stronger interaction between CS molecules. We reveal that the key to success with this system is the decrease of lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of PNIPAm with water evaporation. In addition, we confirmed the removed PNIPAm was recyclable in this system. Furthermore, we found this method was also applicable to alginate. The proposed facile method for fabricating honeycomb-like porous polymeric films could provide various functional porous materials.

Graphical abstract: Honeycomb-like porous chitosan films prepared via phase transition of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) during water evaporation under ambient conditions

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
28 Apr 2020
Accepted
18 May 2020
First published
26 May 2020
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

RSC Adv., 2020,10, 19730-19735

Honeycomb-like porous chitosan films prepared via phase transition of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) during water evaporation under ambient conditions

H. Izawa, H. Kajimoto, M. Morimoto, H. Saimoto and S. Ifuku, RSC Adv., 2020, 10, 19730 DOI: 10.1039/D0RA03845H

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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