Regenerated chitin fibers reinforced with bacterial cellulose nanocrystals as suture biomaterials.

The objective of this work was to prepare a novel filament with good biocompatibility and mechanical performance which can meet the demands of surgical sutures. Bacterial cellulose nanocrystals (BCNCs) were used to reinforce regenerated chitin (RC) fibers to form BCNC/RC filaments. Mechanical performance measurements demonstrated that the strength of the BCNC/RC filament was increased dramatically over the RC analogue. A yarn made of 30 BCNC-loaded fibers also achieved satisfactory mechanical performance, with a knot-pull tensile strength of 9.8±0.6N. Enzymatic degradation studies showed the BCNC/RC materials to have good biodegradability, the rate of which can be tuned by varying the concentration of BCNCs in the yarn. The RC and the BCNC/RC materials had no cytotoxicity and can promote cell proliferation. In vivo experiments on mice demonstrated that suturing with the BCNC/RC yarn can promote wound healing without obvious adverse effects.

Hierarchical Chitin Fibers with Aligned Nanofibrillar Architectures: A Nonwoven-Mat Separator for Lithium Metal Batteries.

Here, we introduce regenerated fibers of chitin (Chiber), the second most abundant biopolymer after cellulose, and propose its utility as a nonwoven fiber separator for lithium metal batteries (LMBs) that exhibits an excellent electrolyte-uptaking capability and Li-dendrite-mitigating performance. Chiber is produced by a centrifugal jet-spinning technique, which allows a simple and fast production of Chibers consisting of hierarchically aligned self-assembled chitin nanofibers. Following the scrutinization on the Chiber-Li-ion interaction via computational methods, we demonstrate the potential of Chiber as a nonwoven mat-type separator by monitoring it in Li-O2 and Na-O2 cells.