Chemical modification and graft copolymerization were commonly adopted to prepare super absorbentmaterials. However, physical microstructure of pure chitosan film was optimized to improve the wateruptake capacity in this study. Chitosan films with micro-nanostructure were prepared by a ternary solventsystem. The optimal process parameters are 1% acetic acid water solution: dioxane: dimethyl sulfox-ide = 90: 2.5: 7.5 (v/v/v) with chitosan concentration at 1.25% (w/v). The water uptake capacity of thechitosan film prepared under the optimal process parameters was 896 g/g. The prepared chitosan filmsalso exhibited high water uptake capacity in response to external stimuli such as temperature, pH andsalt. This finding may provide another way for improving the water absorbency. The pure chitosan filmmay find potential applications especially in the fields of hygienic products and biomedicine due to itssuper water absorbency and nontoxicity.
water absorbency and nontoxicity, the pure chitosan film could find
potential applications especially in the field of hygienic products
and biomedicine.