Characterization Techniques for Chitosan and its Based Materials

All synthesized material needs to be characterized before application. For each type of application there are a number of possible techniques that may be used in order to identify specific material properties and their behaviors during a particular test. Currently a series of chitosan based materials have been synthesized and applied in various fields of science due the versatilities of the materials and its applications. Drug delivery systems, cellular interactions, in vivo studies, nanoparticles encapsulated vesicular systems, wastewater treatment and recovery of precious metals, are some of the applications of chitosan and its based materials found in the scientific literature. Thus, this chapter presents a series of techniques used in the characterization of materials, searching to relate the techniques used with the scientific applications. Analyses that aim at to determine the mechanical and chemical properties of the new material are presented, as well as the ways of monitoring and evaluation of interactions between cells and materials synthesized in cell interactions and in vivo systems.

Keywords: Cellular interactions, In vivo characterization, Material characterization.