Ricerc@Sapienza

Nowadays, inherently safer designs are considered as key priorities to prevent or mitigate serious incidents with devastating consequences. The need for process safety assessment during early design phases has motivated the development of several contributions related to computer-aided assessment methodologies to measure the inherent safety of chemical processes. In this work, the large-scale production of chitosan from shrimp wastes was evaluated from a process safety point of view using the numerical descriptive inherent safety technique (NuDIST).

The high freshwater consumption requirements in shrimp biorefinery approaches represents one of the major drawbacks of implementing these technologies within the shrimp processing industry. This also affects the costs associated with the plant operation, and consequently, the overall economic performance of the project. The application of mass integration tools such as water pinch analysis can reduce frewshwater consumption by up to 80%, contributing to shrimp biorefinery sustainability.

Chitosan is very effective in removing metal ions through their adsorption. A preliminary investigation of the adsorption of chromium(III) by chitosan was carried out by means of batch tests as a function of contact time, pH, ion competition, and initial chromium(III) concentration. The rate of adsorption was rather rapid (t1/2 < 18 min) and influenced by the presence of other metal ions. The obtained data were tested using the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models and, based on R2 values, the former appeared better applicable than the latter.

Scaffolds are three-dimensional porous structures that must have specific requirements to be applied in tissue engineering. Therefore, the study of factors affecting scaffold performance is of great importance. In this work, the optimal conditions for cross-linking preformed chitosan (CS) scaffolds by the tripolyphosphate polyanion (TPP) were investigated. The effect on scaffold physico-chemical properties of different concentrations of chitosan (1 and 2% w/v) and tripolyphosphate (1 and 2% w/v) as well as of cross-linking reaction times (2, 4, or 8 h) were studied.

Wound healing is a dynamic process that can be seriously delayed by many factors including infectious complications. The development of dressings with intrinsic wound healing activity and/or releasing bioactive compounds may help with addressing such an issue. In this study, hyaluronic acid (HA) at different percentages (1–35%) was used to modify chitosan (CS) biological and physico-chemical properties in order to obtain 2D-matrices able to promote healing and protect from infection.

The aim of this work was to prepare and characterize solid dispersions of abietic acid (AB) and chitosan (CS) to investigate how formulation of the mixture may help in the battle against microbial colonization in different areas, such as the biomedical field or the food industry. Solid dispersions were characterized by differential scanning calorimetry, infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, polarized optical microscopy, zeta potential and size analysis.

Tissue engineering is a highly interdisciplinary field of medicine aiming at regenerating damaged tissues by combining cells with porous scaffolds materials. Scaffolds are templates for tissue regeneration and should ensure suitable cell adhesion and mechanical stability throughout the application period. Chitosan (CS) is a biocompatible polymer highly investigated for scaffold preparation but suffers from poor mechanical strength.

Hydrogels are an important class of biomaterials that can absorb large quantities of water. In this study, changes in hydration of natural hydrogels (agar, chitosan, gelatin, starch, and blends of each with chitosan) during storage and rehydration were studied by using near-infrared hyperspectral imaging (NIR-HSI). Moisture content was calculated based on changes in sample weight during hydration. The NIR-HSI data were acquired by using a push-broom system operating in diffuse reflectance in the wavelength range 943 to 1650 nm.

This contribution deals with a foam templating route to produce solid monodisperse chitosan foams via microfluidics. We firstly produced a monodisperse liquid foam from a 4 wt % chitosan solution. Subsequently, we cross-linked the chitosan with genipin and freeze-dried the resulting monodisperse foamed hydrogel to obtain solid monodisperse chitosan foams. In order to obtain a desired polydispersity we also used microfluidics, i.e. we produced polydisperse foams with a controlled bubble size distribution by applying a periodic pressure to the gas phase.

Hypericum perforatum L. (Hypericaceae), popularly known as St. John’s wort, is a medicinal plant widely used in folk medicine [1]. It is known mainly for its antidepressant activity, and nowadays St. John’s wort preparations are among the most widely prescribed drugs for depression in many European countries [2]. Since the secondary metabolites responsible for the antidepressant activity (e.g. hyperforins and hypericins) are mainly accumulated in leaves and flowers, the chemical composition and the medicinal properties of aerial parts have been extensively investigated [3].