Self-Assembled Polyelectrolyte Nanocomplexes between Chitosan and Poly (L-glutamic acid)

摘要

Polymer complexes are formed by association of two or more complementary polymers and may arise from electrostatic forces, hydrophobic interactions, hydrogen bonding, vander Wael forces, or combinations of these interactions. Polyelectrolyte complexes (PEC), one of the polymer complexes, are obtained when two polymers carrying opposite charges are mixed and interact via electrostatic (coulombic) interactions. Due to the special physicochemical and mechanical properties, they have been proposed for the design of drug delivery systems, protein separation ,anticoagulant coatings , and membranes for separation materials or even as skin substitutes, etc. The preparation of PEC from natural polymers, such as polysaccharides or polypeptides has the additional advantage of being non-toxic and bioabsorbable, and has received considerable attention by researchers in the past several decades. In this study, polyelectrolyte nanocomplexes between chitosan(CS), a weak cationic polysaccharide, and Poly (L-glutamic acid)(PLGA), a poly(a-amino acid), were synthesized and characterized.