Polydimethylsiloxane-modified chitosan I. Synthesis and structural characterisation of graft and crosslinked copolymers

Graft and crosslinked polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-chitosan copolymers were prepared through the reaction between mono and difunctional glycidoxypropyl-terminated PDMSs and chitosan. The transformation of amino groups of chitosan through the reaction with epoxy groups was confirmed by FT-IR and ¹³C cross-polarization (CP) magic-angle spinning (MAS)-NMR analysis. Chitosan-based materials modified with about 40% and 60% hydrophobic polydimethylsiloxane were obtained, respectively. As proved by wide angle X-ray analysis, the crystallinity of chitosan was strongly decreased through the incorporation of PDMS sequences. However, both graft and crosslinked copolymers still present a partial crystalline structure. Their X-ray patterns are not only different as compared to chitosan but also as compared to each other. For the graft copolymer, three diffraction peaks were observed at 2θ = 8.4°, 11.2° and 21.2°, indicating the formation of a new partially crystalline phase and the modification of the interplanar distances for the phases similar to chitosan. The crosslinked copolymer is even less crystalline, the peak around 2θ = 20° being strongly decreased. Different thermal behaviour of siloxane modified chitosan was registered for graft and crosslinked copolymers; the graft sample is less stable than chitosan, while the crosslinked copolymer showed an intermediate stability between chitosan and polydimethylsiloxane precursors.