Chitosan/Poly (vinyl alcohol) Based Hydrogels for Biomedical Applications: A Review

Abstract

The present review aims to give a closer look of hydrogels based on chitosan and poly (vinyl alcohol) and to discuss their potential biomedical applications in drug delivery system. Various investigations based on chitosan/poly (vinyl alcohol) carried out recently by researchers have been reported in this review. Moreover different chemical and physical crosslinking methods used for hydrogels formulations have been summarized and discussed in this overview. Different characterization tools including Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and rheological analysis used by researchers have also been reported in this review.

Keywords: Hydrogels, Chitosan, Poly (vinyl alcohol), Physical crosslinking, Chemical crosslinking