Building Energy Materials & Components Laboratory, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa), Überlandstrasse 129, CH-8600, Dübendorf, Switzerland.
Research Institute for Chemical Process Technology, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba Central 5, 1-1-1 Higashi, 3058565, Tsukuba, Japan.
Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2021 Apr 26;60(18):9828-9851. doi: 10.1002/anie.202003053. Epub 2020 Nov 30.
Chitosan is an abundant biopolymer derived from food waste with attractive properties, particularly its high biocompatibility and easy chemical processability. Here, we review the rapidly expanding literature on chitosan-based porous materials with a focus on the gelation mechanisms, the three-dimensional multiscale structural control, and the diverse chemical functionality not accessible by other biopolymers. The properties vary widely: from supercritically dried, mesoporous chitosan aerogels to very light, freeze-dried macroporous scaffolds. Porous chitosan displays impressive performance at the laboratory scale, but the highly (meso)porous nature amplifies not only the beneficial functionality of chitosan, but also its drawbacks, resulting in serious barriers to industrialization. In order to facilitate technology transfer, we critically discuss the practical feasibility of chitosan aerogels in potential applications compared to conventional and other biopolymer-based porous or nonporous materials.
壳聚糖是一种从食品废料中提取的丰富的生物聚合物，具有很高的生物相容性和易于化学加工的特点。在这里，我们综述了壳聚糖基多孔材料的快速发展的文献，重点关注凝胶化机制、三维多尺度结构控制以及其他生物聚合物无法实现的多样化化学功能。其性质变化范围很广：从超临界干燥的、中孔壳聚糖气凝胶到非常轻的、冷冻干燥的大孔支架。多孔壳聚糖在实验室规模上表现出令人印象深刻的性能，但高度（中）孔的性质不仅放大了壳聚糖的有益功能，也放大了其缺点，导致产业化面临严重障碍。为了促进技术转让，我们批判性地讨论了壳聚糖气凝胶在潜在应用中的实际可行性，与传统和其他基于生物聚合物的多孔或非多孔材料相比。
