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International Journal of Polymer Science
Volume 2010 (2010), Article ID 369759, 7 pages
doi:10.1155/2010/369759
Chitin Fiber and Chitosan 3D Composite Rods
1Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Key Laboratory of Macromolecule Synthesis and Functionalization, Zhejiang University, Ministry of Education, Hangzhou 310027, China
2Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA
Received 15 March 2010; Accepted 21 April 2010
Academic Editor: Shanfeng Wang
Copyright © 2010 Zhengke Wang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Chitin fiber (CHF) and chitosan (CS) 3D composite rods with layer-by-layer structure were constructed by in situ precipitation method. CHF could not be dissolved in acetic acid aqueous solution, but CS could be dissolved due to the different deacetylation degree (D.D) between CHF and CS. CHF with undulate surfaces could be observed using SEM to demonstrate that the sufficiently rough surfaces and edges of the fiber could enhance the mechanical combining stress between fiber and matrix. XRD indicated that the crystallinity of CHF/CS composites decreased and CS crystal plane d-spacing of CHF/CS composites became larger than that of pure CS rod. TG analysis showed that mixing a little amount of CHF could enhance thermal stability of CS rod, but when the content of CHF was higher than the optimum amount, its thermal stability decreased. When 0.5% CHF was added into CS matrix, the bending strength and bending modulus of the composite rods arrived at 114.2 MPa and 5.2 GPa, respectively, increased by 23.6% and 26.8% compared with pure CS rods, indicating that CHF/CS composite rods could be a better candidate for bone fracture internal fixation.