Fabrication of porous chitin with continuous substructure by regeneration from gel with CaBr2·2H2O/methanol

In this study, we investigated the fabrication of porous chitins with continuous channel substructure by regeneration from gels with CaBr2·2H2O/methanol solution. After rapidly removing methanol from the gels, the products were immersed in methanol, followed by washing out CaBr2 with water and lyophilization to obtain regenerated chitins with inter-connected continuous pore morphology. Scanning electron microscopic results supported that the materials were consisted of continuous substructures of porous channels. The materials were further characterized by SEM-EDX and XRD measurements. The mechanical property and water absorbability were also evaluated. The plausible mechanism for the formation of the inter-connected pore morphology during the regeneration procedure was discussed.