Manufacturing of functional gelatin/chitosan composite membrane

Biodegradable materials have gained more and more attention, especially in biomedical fields. Because of their degradability, biomedical products made of these biodegradable materials can reduce the deleterious impact to the environment. Among other biodegradable polymers, gelatin has been used in wound dressing to accelerate wound healing due to its biocompatibility, film formability and hemostatic activity. In this study, we used gelatin as the matrix for our dressing. As gelatin is prone to degrade/dissolve in water at body temperature, it has to be cross-linked or stabilized with other compounds to enhance its lifetime. Chitosan, another biodegradable polymer, is also widely used in wound healing due to its biocompatibility and antibacterial properties. In this study, we mixed gelatin solution with chitosan solution at a variety of ratios and tested the effectiveness of UV irradiation on cross-linking the two polymers. The composite membranes were fabricated and underwent tests of swelling, stability in water, water contact angle to evaluate their stability and hydrophilicity. Our results showed that the composite membrane made of gelatin/chitosan (90:10) treated with UV irradiation for ten min has the optimal stability in water.