Chemical Modifications of Chitosan and Its Applications

Chitosan is considered as a promising material in the pharmaceutical and biomedical fields based on its unique biological properties. This review presents chemical modifications of chitosan via using photosensitizers, dendrimers, sugars, cyclodextrins and crown ethers as modifiers and places an emphasis on the applications of chitosan derivatives as carriers in drug delivery systems, as supporting materials for tissue engineering, as dye removing agents and as metal ion adsorbents. Recently, the progress on chemical modifications of chitosan is quite rapid and we are confident that a more extensive range of applications of chitosan derivatives could be expected in the near future.