Swelling properties of chitosan hydrogels

Abstract

Chitosan hydrogels were prepared by crosslinking chitosan with glutaraldehyde. The swelling behaviour of the crosslinked and uncross-linked hydrogels was measured by swelling the gels in media of different pH and at different temperatures. The swelling behavior was observed to be dependent on pH, temperature and the degree of crosslinking. The gel films were characterized by Fourier transform Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). The glass transition temperature (Tg) and the amount of free water in the hydrogels decreased with increasing crosslinking in the hydrogels.