Chitosan as an adhesive

• Chitosan is polysaccharide obtained after alkaline deacetylation of chitin.
• This review synthetizes the state of the art on chitosan-based adhesives.
• The assessment of chitosan environmental impact is discussed.

Chitosan is a well-known polysaccharide abundantly published during the last decades. This heteropolymer, composed of 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-d-glucopyranose and 2-amino-2-deoxy-d-glucopyranose, is obtained after alkaline deacetylation of chitin from crustaceans, fungi and other non-vegetable organisms. Soluble only at acidic pH, it is the unique polycationic polysaccharide extracted from bioresources. This characteristic gives to it original and specific properties finding some applications in several industrial fields but especially in the biomedical one because of its biocompatibility and its non-toxicity. Besides these traditional applications other ones begin actually to appear in the literature. They focus on the development of chitosan-based adhesives, binders or films. This review synthetizes the state of the art on this domain, but also deals with the assessment of chitosan environmental impact.

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