Chitosan-Based Material for Cellular Tissue Engineering

Aqueous dispersed media and films based on edible or succinate chitosan with single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) were manufactured. Infrared spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy were used to study the structural changes associated with formation of intermolecular junctions between chitosan and SWCNT. Nonlinear optical characteristics of liquid samples exposed to pulsed laser radiation of nanosecond duration were determined experimentally and calculated theoretically. The composition of the medium based on succinate chitosan and SWCNT providing the largest nonlinear absorption coefficient (902 cm/GW) was determined. The sample with this composition had lower threshold radiation intensity (2.7 MW/cm2), at which nonlinear effects are generated in the medium and liquid-to-solid transition occurs. The results obtained in this work are useful for laser-based production of three-dimensional cellular and tissue-engineered structures used in cardiovascular surgery.