Advanced chitosan-based materials: synthesis, properties, processing and applications

开发新的生态材料的需要变得至关重要，因为寻求不依赖于石油资源的聚合物，并且因为与废物管理相关的环境问题成为一个问题。蟹和虾壳等海洋副产品被沿着加工路线丢弃。这些壳由几丁质、蛋白质和碳酸钙作为主要结构成分组成，几丁质是纤维素之后最丰富的有机材料。甲壳素及其主要的工业衍生物壳聚糖构成了当今可用的海洋原料的主要生物聚合物，然而，它们在增值产品方面的潜力尚未得到充分开发。它们的使用仍然对科学界和工业界具有挑战性，因为缺乏对决定它们在不同物理状态和过程中行为的基本机制的理解。这主要是由于天然聚合物固有的链尺寸和化学组成的大的多分散性，与它们的合成对应物相反。

The need to exploit novel ecological materials becomes essential as polymers not relying on petroleum resources are sought for, and as environmental concerns related to waste management becomes an issue. Marine by-products such as crab and shrimp shells are abandoned along the processing route. These shells consist of chitin, proteins and calcium carbonate as the main structural components, chitin being the most abundant organic material after cellulose. Chitin and its main industrial derivative, chitosan, constitute the principal biopolymers from marine feedstock available today and yet, their potential in terms of value-added products has not been exploited to fullness. Their use remains challenging to the scientific community and the industry due to a lack of understanding of the fundamental mechanisms dictating their behavior in different physical states and processes. This is mainly due to the large polydispersity in chain size and chemical composition intrinsic to natural polymers, in opposition to their synthetic counterparts.