Chitin is a biobased and renewable biopolymer which consistents with the green and sustainable development. However, the strong inter- and intra-molecular hydrogen bonding interactions of chitin endow it with very poor solubility and processability, which extremely limit its broad application. In this work, a simple “building block reorganization” strategy has been developed to prepare chitin-based composite film with a “brick-and-mortar” structure. After successively experiencing salt-induced “preaggregation” and alkali-induced “hydrogen bonds remolding”, the mixture of chitin nanowhiskers (ChNWs) and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) was processed into high strength and transparent composite film with ChNWs as “bricks” and PVA as “mortar”. The hydrogen-bond remolding process had successfully promoted the interactions between ChNWs and PVA, and optimized the microscopic “brick-and-mortar” structure, therefore resulting in much improved mechanical properties, water resistance, and barrier properties of the composite films. Moreover, the whole process for preparing the composite films was carried out in aqueous medium at room temperature, which makes it a promising candidate for green processing of natural polysaccharide.

中文翻译：

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具有“砖和砂浆”结构的高性能几丁质纳米晶须/ PVA复合膜的绿色制备

几丁质是一种基于生物的可再生生物聚合物，与绿色可持续发展相一致。然而，几丁质的强分子间和分子内氢键相互作用使甲壳素的溶解性和可加工性非常差，这极大地限制了它的广泛应用。在这项工作中，已经开发了一种简单的“构建基块重组”策略来制备具有“砖和灰浆”结构的几丁质基复合膜。在连续经历盐诱导的“预聚集”和碱诱导的“氢键重塑”之后，几丁质纳米晶须（ChNWs）和聚乙烯醇（PVA）的混合物被加工成高强度的透明复合膜，其中ChNWs作为“砖” ”，PVA为“实体”。氢键重塑过程成功地促进了ChNWs和PVA之间的相互作用，并优化了微观的“砖瓦房”结构，因此大大改善了复合膜的机械性能，耐水性和阻隔性能。而且，制备复合膜的整个过程在室温下在水性介质中进行，这使其成为天然多糖的绿色加工的有希望的候选者。