Synthesis of chitosan thin films for biomedical applications

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Ankara Üniversitesi, Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü, Biomedical Engineering, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2025

Tezin Dili: İngilizce

Öğrenci: GÖZDENUR DURSUN

Danışman: Hilal Göktaş

Özet:

Chitin is a biopolymer. It is found in the exoskeletons of crustaceams. Chitosan, a polysaccharide, is obtained through the partial deacetylation of chitin. The free amino groups in its molecular structure impart crucial and functional properties to chitosan, such as biocompatibility and biodegradability. Additionally, it exhibits antibacterial activity due to it is ability to kill bacterial cell membranes and inhibit microbial growth, showing a broad spectrum of effects against wide range of bacteria. Thanks to these properties, chitosan finds applications in some bacterias, including preventing infections that occur on the surfaces of implantable medical devices—often leading to patient fatalities—as well as in wound dressings. Chitosan can be coated onto surfaces using various methods. The present study focuses on producing nanometer-scale thin films of chitosan on various substrates via the Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD) method. The produced surfaces were characterized using FTIR, XPS, SEM analytical techniques. For antibacterial activity analysis, bacterial diffusion tests were performed on Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, which exhibit activity in different tissues and on implant surfaces in the human body and are extremely challenging to inhibit from surfaces. In addition, thin film coating was applied to catheters of a certain size and colony counts were made on these 2 bacteria on the 1st day, 4th day and 7th day.