Abstract:
The preparation of epoxy-chitosan gel with hydroxyapatite is reported. Initially, the reactivity and solubility of chitosan is improved by conjugating phthaloyl groups with chitosan chains. The epoxy group is introduced to hydroxyl group at C-6 by reacting epichlorohydrin with A-phthaloyl-chitosan. The reaction with hydrazine will not only bring the dephthaloylation but also the ring opening of epoxy group to obtain the crosslinking as confirmed by FTIR. After dephthaloylation and crosslinking, the alternate soaking of calcium with phosphate solution is applied to establish hydroxyapatite formation in the epoxy-chitosan matrix. Chitineous gel and its hydroxyapatite formation are characterized by XRD, FTIR, and TGA.
