Controlled formation of surface hydrophilicity enhanced chitosan film by layer-by-layer electro-assembly

Advances in surface properties characterization and modification for lignin

Renewed interests on lignin and its derivatives have led to increasingly more investigations due to the problems in environmental impact while with the great reuse possibilities for producing them-based new and advanced materials to reduce the petroleum achieving sustainable development. The related studies have shown more integrated database on the surface properties characterization and modification of those renewable materials. Based on numerous works did at our group and others reported elsewhere, this review covers the surface properties of lignin and its derivatives in relation to various methods and theories. In this work, the progress on the recent developments of advanced methods for lignin surface characterization and modification are also documented. Of this review, a perspective is finally presented.

Electrodeposition of Polysaccharide and Protein Hydrogels for Biomedical Applications

In the last few decades, polysaccharide and protein hydrogels have attracted significant attentions and been applied in various engineering fields. Polysaccharide and protein hydrogels with appealing physical and biological features have been produced to meet different biomedical applications for their excellent properties related to biodegradability, biocompatibility, nontoxicity, and stimuli responsiveness. Numerous methods, such as chemical crosslinking, photo crosslinking, graft polymerization, hydrophobic interaction, polyelectrolyte complexation and electrodeposition have been employed to prepare polysaccharide and protein hydrogels. Electrodeposition is a facile way to produce different polysaccharide and protein hydrogels with the advantages of temporal and spatial controllability. This paper reviews the recent progress in the electrodeposition of different polysaccharide and protein hydrogels. The strategies of pH induced assembly, Ca2+ crosslinking, metal ions induced assembly, oxidation induced assembly derived from electrochemical methods were discussed. Pure, binary blend and ternary blend polysaccharide and protein hydrogels with multiple functionalities prepared by electrodeposition were summarized. In addition, we have reviewed the applications of these hydrogels in drug delivery, tissue engineering and wound dressing.