(200h) Physical Blending to Produce Chitosan, PLA, and PCL-Based Composite Films for Biomedical Applications

Chitosan (CS), polycaprolactone (PCL), and polylactic acid (PLA) are biodegradable, biocompatible, and bioresorbable polymers, which makes them very attractive to be employed in environmental, food, and medical applications. Nevertheless, these polymers still suffer from several significant drawbacks, especially when used alone. For example, Chitosan is brittle, PCL has a slow degradation rate, low cell adhesion, and poor antibacterial and mechanical properties. PLA exhibits low elasticity, low cell adhesion, low degradation rate, and acid degradation by-products. This work reported a successful and simple blending method to synthesize composite films based on CS-PAL-PCL polymers. In addition, the produced films were characterized using FTIR, TGA, SEM, and their water-solubility, thickness, and antibacterial performance against positive and negative gram microbes were also evaluated. Results showed that the produced composite films have the potential to overcome the stated drawbacks and result in reliable materials for food packaging and medical applications.