Rapidly in situ forming hydrophobically-modified chitosan hydrogels via pH-responsive nanostructure transformation

A pH-responsive hydrogel targeted for various biomedical applications has been developed using a naturally-abundant biopolymer, chitosan, with controlled grafting of hydrophobic side chains. The rapid hydrogelation is driven by a transformation of the nanostructure of the side-chain aggregates from local micelles to interconnected nanodomains in a sponge phase due to the dominance of hydrophobic interaction near physiological pH.