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Chitosan‐based nanocomposites for medical applications
Author(s) -
Murugesan Selvakumar,
Scheibel Thomas
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2642-4169
pISSN - 2642-4150
DOI - 10.1002/pol.20210251
Subject(s) - chitosan , biocompatibility , drug delivery , nanocomposite , nanotechnology , materials science , chemistry , organic chemistry , metallurgy
Chitosan as a biobased polymer is gaining increasing attention due to its extraordinary physico‐chemical characteristics and properties. While a primary use of chitosan has been in horticultural and agricultural applications for plant defense and to increase crop yield, recent research reports display various new utilizations in the field of advanced biomedical devices, targeted drug delivery, and as bioimaging sensors. Chitosan possesses multiple characteristics such as antimicrobial properties, stimuli‐responsiveness, tunable mechanical strength, biocompatibility, biodegradability, and water‐solubility. Further, chitosan can be processed into nanoparticles, nano‐vehicles, nanocapsules, scaffolds, fiber meshes, and 3D printed scaffolds for a variety of applications. In recent times, nanoparticles incorporated in chitosan matrices have been identified to show superior biological activity, as cells tend to proliferate/differentiate faster when they interact with nanocomposites rather than bulk or micron size substrates/scaffolds. The present article intents to cover chitosan‐based nanocomposites used for regenerative medicine, wound dressings, drug delivery, and biosensing applications.