Bioactive and metal uptake studies of carboxymethyl chitosan-graft-d-glucuronic acid membranes for tissue engineering and environmental applications

Carboxymethyl chitosan-graft-d-glucuronic acid (CMCS-g-d-GA) was prepared by grafting d-GA onto CMCS in the presence of 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide (EDC) and then the membranes were made from it. In this work, the bioactivity studies of CMCS-g-d-GA membranes were carried out and then characterized by SEM, CLSM, XRD and FT-IR. The CMCS-g-d-GA membranes were found to be bioactive. The adsorption of Ni2+, Zn2+and Cu2+ ions onto CMCS-g-d-GA membranes has also been investigated. The maximum adsorption capacity of CMCS-g-d-GA for Ni2+, Zn2+and Cu2+ was found to be 57, 56.4 and 70.2 mg/g, respectively. Hence, these membranes were useful for tissue engineering, environmental and water purification applications.