- Hierarchically organized chitin-based matrices
- Montroni, Devis <1991>
Subject
- CHIM/03 Chimica generale e inorganica
Description
- Chitin is the second most abundant biopolymer on Earth and the most diffused across the known species, being present in more than 70 % of them. It is present in a huge variety of different structures and morphologies being a massive pool of information for new material science approach. This thesis aims to study chitin at different level of organization using diverse approaches. Three main topics are discussed in this manuscript. The first is the use of a bottom-up approach to study chitin nanofibrils self-assembly in water triggering the assembly by pH increment. Successively, the assembly was studied in presence of another pH responsive biomacromolecule, the collagen, to get new composite materials and study how the assembly and the chitin/collagen ratio influence fibroblast’s viability. The second topic focuses on biogenic organized chitin-based matrices, in both Ariolimax californicus and Loligo vulgaris. This study aims to understand the features that give raise to the properties of those matrices. Finally, in the last section a top-up approach was used to exploit natural hierarchically organized chitinous matrices to obtain organized functional materials introducing a catechol on the free amino group of deacetylated chitin (DA 77 %). In conclusion, this study of chitin at different level of organization emphasized different novelties depending on the organization level studied. Moreover, this thesis gives many possibilities for future bioinspired routes to get highly organized materials, or for highly organized functional materials based on natural chitin-based matrices.
Date
- 2020-03-20
Type
- Doctoral Thesis
- PeerReviewed
Format
- application/pdf
Identifier
urn:nbn:it:unibo-25898
Montroni, Devis (2020) Hierarchically organized chitin-based matrices, [Dissertation thesis], Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna. Dottorato di ricerca in Chimica