Thesis (M.Eng.)--Chulalongkorn University, 2007

Due to the similarity between the chemical structures of BC and chitosan, it is interesting to add chitosan to BC culture medium as it might improve the physical and biological properties of the developed BC-chitosan film. The addtion of chitosan of MW 30,000 and 80,000 more than 0.75 percent (w/v) in the culture medium strongly inhibited the formation of BC biosynthesis. BC-chitosan film showed the best polymer miscibility and mechanical properties at 0.75 percent (w/v) in the culture medium. In this thesis, mechanical property, equilibrium water content, water vapor permeability, porous structure, antibacteria ability, antifungal ability, crystallinity index, and the growth of human skin cells on the BC-chitosan film were investigated. The BC-chitosan films were denser and thicker after the addition of chitosan. The BC-chitosan film had the pore sizes much lessen than that of BC while the surface area was not slightly increased from the latter. The average pore size of the films decreased with the increase of chitosan supplementation. The pore sizes of the films of BC-chitosan MW30000 and MW80000 were 151 A and 132 A, respectively. The FTIR result indicated the intermolecular interaction between BC and chitosan. The mechanical properties of BC-chitosan film were relatively improved. The equilibrium water content of BC-chitosan film was higher than that of the BC film. Additonally, BC-chitosan film had no toxicity and supported cell proliferation.