Hydrothermally Treated Chitosan Spontaneously Forms Water-Soluble Spherical Particles Stable At A Wide Ph Range

Keywords

Charge tunable; chitosan; particles; tartaric acid; water soluble

Abstract

The authors report the spontaneous formation of water-soluble chitosan-tartaric acid (CS-TA) spherical particles. Particles are formed by heating chitosan in the presence of tartaric acid under hydrothermal conditions. Tartaric acid serves as an ionic cross-linker, a depolymerizing agent, and a particle stabilizer in aqueous phase. The CS-TA particles exhibit superior colloidal stability at a wide pH range due to their surface charge tunability, which is due to the colocalization of surface hydroxyl, amine, and carboxyl groups. At physiological pH condition, particles have zwitterionic structure as determined by the zeta potential measurements. Still, CS-TA maintains colloidal stability at neutral pH due to the abundance of surface hydroxyl groups. As a proof-of-concept study, the CS-TA particles were labeled with a model insoluble cargo (fluorescein isothiocyanate [FITC]) to demonstrate their capacity for solubilizing hydrophobic drugs. The CS-TA/FITC conjugates were found to remain well dispersed at neutral pH, while maintaining FITC fluorescence properties.

Publication Date

10-12-2016

Publication Title

International Journal of Polymeric Materials and Polymeric Biomaterials

Volume

65

Issue

15

Number of Pages

751-758

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1080/00914037.2016.1163568

Socpus ID

84975257519 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84975257519

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