Chitin and Chitosan Polymer Nanofibrous Membranes and Their Biological Applications

A variety of shapes of polymer nanostructures, nanocomposites, nanofibrous membranes were intentionally studied to discern their possible applications. This chapter highlights the chitin and chitosan nanofiber structures, nanofibrous membranes and their biocompatible nanocomposites. These chitin/chitosan nanofibrous membranes and their nanocomposites were found to be sustainable, biodegradable, antimicrobial, non-toxic and exhibited tremendous other biological activities compared to their micro or bulk membranes. Chitin and chitosan possesses interesting inimitable structures, multidimensional properties highly complicated functionalities and possibility of engineering into nanofibrous membranes. Chitin and chitosan is one of the important polymers investigated so far and yield potential applications in areas such as filtrations, recovery of metal ions, drug release, dental bone tissue engineering, catalyst and enzyme carriers, wound healing, protective clothing skin regeneration, biosensors, medical implants and liver functioning respectively. Nanofibers matrices so far showed fascinating results in tissue engineering scaffolds due to their ultrafine, continuous fibers high porosity, variable pore-size distribution, high surface to volume ratio.