Pervaporation membranes of a simplex type with polyelectrolyte layers of chitosan and sodium hyaluronate

Svetlana V Kononova; Elena V Kruchinina; Valentina A Petrova; Yulia G Baklagina; Vera V Klechkovskaya; Anton S Orekhov; Elena N Vlasova; Elena N Popova; Galina N Gubanova; Yury A Skorik

doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2019.01.003

Pervaporation membranes of a simplex type with polyelectrolyte layers of chitosan and sodium hyaluronate

Carbohydr Polym. 2019 Apr 1:209:10-19. doi: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2019.01.003. Epub 2019 Jan 2.

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Macromolecular Compounds of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Bolshoi pr. VO 31, St. Petersburg 199004, Russian Federation.
² Shubnikov Institute of Crystallography, Federal Scientific Research Centre "Crystallography and Photonics", Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninskiy pr. 59, Moscow 119333, Russian Federation.
³ Shubnikov Institute of Crystallography, Federal Scientific Research Centre "Crystallography and Photonics", Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninskiy pr. 59, Moscow 119333, Russian Federation; National Research Centre "Kurchatov Institute", Akademika Kurchatova pl. 1, Moscow 123182, Russian Federation.
⁴ Institute of Macromolecular Compounds of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Bolshoi pr. VO 31, St. Petersburg 199004, Russian Federation; Institute of Experimental Medicine, Almazov National Medical Research Centre, Akkuratova ul. 2, St. Petersburg 197341, Russian Federation. Electronic address: yury_skorik@mail.ru.

PMID: 30732788
DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2019.01.003

Abstract

Self-supporting multilayer films containing a polyelectrolyte complex (PEC) were prepared by the sequential layering of sodium hyaluronate (HA, MW 5.4 × 10⁴) and chitosan (CS, MW 1.6 × 10⁵, the degree of deacetylation 0.80) in different orders. Imaging with low-voltage scanning electron microscopy (LVSEM) showed that the CS/HA films had a multilayer structure, while X-ray diffraction (XRD) indicated significant structuring of the CS layer near the PEC-CS region. Analysis of the thermal properties of the CS/HA films revealed differences in the structural organization and morphological features of the polymer layers and high thermal stability of the PEC layer. Testing of the transport properties of the CS/HA film in pervaporation (PV) separation using different compositions of ethanol-water mixtures indicated that the multilayer membrane was selective across a wide range of concentrations in the feed. Separation of an azeotropic ethanol-water mixture containing 5 wt% water yielded a permeate consisting of about 100 wt% water. LVSEM revealed that the membrane microstructure changed during the PV process due to membrane swelling and changes in the arrangement of the macromolecules during transport of the penetrant. The results support the use of CS/HA composite films as highly effective PV membranes. In addition to pervaporation separation, CS/HA multilayer films can also be used for drug delivery, tissue engineering, and wound healing applications.

Keywords: Chitosan; Hyaluronic acid; Pervaporation; Polyelectrolyte complex.