Collagen blends with polymers

Figure 15.1 Schematic sketch of the electrospinning setup used for producing fibers with diameters in the micro/nanometer range. As an example of electrospinning application to cationic polymers, SEM images of (A) hydroxybutyl chitosan (HBC) nanofibers and (B) HBC/collagen blend nanofibers are shown. Both scaffolds are essentially constituted by fiber sizes in the nanometer range and can be handled without tearing. (Adapted from Dang and Leong with permission from Wiley-VCH.)...

An alternative approach involves blending of conducting polymers with biomaterials of interest to form biocomposites. This, of course, ideally involves the TCP and biomolecule to be soluble in a compatible solvent that does not denature the biomolecule. Such examples are limited and usually involve polyanilines [26], as they are more postsynthesis processable. ICP polyanilines have, for example, been blended with collagen. Blending of poly(o-ethoxyaniline) and collagen resulted in formation of flexible free-standing semiconducting materials. 

In this chapter, we discussed possible methods for the formation of electrically conducting biocomposites using proteinaceous sohd biomasses arising from leather industries as wastes. The proteinaceous collagen wastes were blended with natural polymers (chitosan or GG) and different fillers such as GrC and nanotubes (ie, BCNTs and FWCNTs) to form hybrid-conducting biocomposite films. The formed biocomposife films were found fo exhibit promising mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties. The thermal properties of both of the hybrid composite materials increase moderately with the increase in the addition of nanocarbons. The mechanical... 

Significant improvement of functional properties has been reported for fibers obtained from blends of chitin with various natural polymers such as cellulose, silk fibroin and glycosaminoglycans [48, 50, 51]. Fibers of chitosan blended with alginate, collagen and gelatin have been evaluated for wound dressing and artificial skin applications [52, 53, 108, 136]. 

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