Sustainability and antimicrobial assessments of bio based polybenzoxazine film

Renewable materials are abundantly available in nature and have the capability to degrade within a short period of time. In the present study, a novel class of chitosan-based polybenzoxazine has been synthesized for the first time. Water, an edible solvent was used for the benzoxazine synthesis, adopting moderate reaction temperature. This bio-based benzoxazine monomer was crosslinked by thermal treatment via ring-opening polymerization to form free-standing polymer films [poly(E-Ch)] without the evolution of volatiles. Hydrogen bonding interactions were found to exist between chitosan and polybenzoxazine. This type of interactions significantly enhance the thermal and mechanical properties with T10 of about 260 degrees C; epsilon' of about 3.6 GPa; and Tg of about 135 degrees C showing unusual levels of synergism. Interestingly, both the bio-films-poly(E-Ch) and CH do not affect the cell growth. In particular, poly(E-Ch) is effective in preventing bio-film associted infections.