Synthesis and dynamic mechanical behavior of glucose‐mediated poly(ethylene glycol/chitosan) membrane

The pH‐dependent chitosan/PEG membrane was prepared by a surface‐mediated process with glucose as a source. Swelling study shows that the glucose‐mediated membrane is more stable in a neutral environment than an acidic one and the stability in all soaking environments generally increases with increasing glucose concentration because of an increase in Schiff's reaction product as demonstrated by a mediated degree analysis. DMA analysis shows that as the glucose concentration increases, the rubber plateau of the glucose‐mediated membrane is prolonged and keeps a higher storage modulus, and the tangent δ peak shifts to a high temperature as the temperature increases. In an isothermal mode, as the glucose concentration increases to 10 wt %, the storage modulus shows a small change in frequency dependence, indicating that the mediating effect is obviously affected by glucose addition. It can also be found that surface‐mediated membrane has a higher complex viscosity than chitosan/PEG membrane at high frequencies. Thus, a new way was found to use glucose to produce stable biomaterial. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 93: 809–820, 2004