Morphology and miscibility of chitosan/soy protein blended membranes

Abstract

A physico-chemical characterization of blended membranes composed by chitosan and soy protein has been carried out in order to probe the interactions that allow membranes to be formed from these biopolymer mixtures. These membranes are developed aiming at applications in wound healing and skin tissue engineering scaffolding. The structural features of chitosan/soy blended membranes were investigated by means of solid state carbon nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), contact angle, and atomic force microscopy. FTIR investigations suggested that chitosan and soy may have participated in a specific intermolecular interaction. The proton spin–lattice relaxation experiments in the rotating frame on blended membranes indicated that independently of the preparation conditions, the blend components are not completely miscible possibly due to a weak polymer–protein interaction. It was also shown that the blended systems showed a rougher surface morphology which was dependent of soy content in the blend system.