Characterization of the cathodic electrodeposition of semicrystalline chitosan hydrogel

We report the visualization of the electrodeposition of chitosan hydrogels and structural characterization of such materials. An electrode embedded microfluidic device is used to visualize the gel deposition process as a distinguishable sol-gel interface separating the clear electrolyte solution region and the orderly textured gel region. The crystalline structure and the nanostructure of the as-deposited gel is characterized with synchrotron X-ray scattering measurements, confirming the semicrystalline nature of the deposited chitosan gels by a neutralization process at the cathode. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.