Abstract
Chitosan is a linear polysaccharide that can be synthesized through the deacetylation of chitin, a naturally abundant biopolymer found in the exoskeleton of crustaceans. It has received a lot of attention because of important features such as biodegradability, biocompatibility and antibacterial and regenerative properties. These features render it useful as the basic building block in important applications such as adsorptive wastewater treatment, sustained drug delivery, gene therapy, and electrosensors. Grafting this polymer with different types of moieties enhances its properties in different ways, e.g., grafting polyethylene glycol (PEG) to chitosan increases its solubility, and subsequently tuning the percent content of PEG imparts thermoresponsivity to the hydrogel. In this chapter, different applications of grafted chitosan are outlined with respect to different types of moieties, cross-linking reagents, grafting techniques, and experimental parameters such as the pH and the percent concentration of polymers.