Preparation and Modification of Chitosan-based Membrane

Chitosan (CS) has been studied worldwide, including its recent applications in membrane science. Despite its advantages, drawbacks such as weak mechanical property and low solubility hampered its wide range of applications. Herein, CS films with various deactivation degree (DD) and CS/poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) blend film (PEO with different molecular weights) are prepared, and vapor-crosslink technique is applied to crosslink various CS based membranes using glutaraldehyde. With the introduction of PEO into CS, the blend membrane surface is transformed from a dense structure to a porous structure. The formation of networks in cross-linked CS/PEO membranes by glutaraldehyde decreased the pore size as well as the thermal stability of cross-linked CS/PEO. Besides, a gradual increase in the tensile strength with the increasing cross-linking time is observed initially. Our work exhibits the great potential of CS-based membrane modified by PEO and glutaraldehyde.