Chitosan Nanostructures with Controllable Morphology Produced by a Nonaqueous Electrochemical Approach

As we enter the era of bio-nanotechnology, nanomaterials are playing a new and important role in many biology-related applications and advanced nanodevices. In particular, those conjugated with biological moieties have enormous potential in biolabeling, drug delivery, and therapeutic applications. In fact, much progress has been achieved in the past ten years based on inorganic (e.g., CdSe, Au) nanomaterials. However, these inorganic compounds raise significant environment concerns and represent potential danger for more extensive medical diagnostics and applications, especially in in vitro and in vivo tests and applications. In addition, some of them, for example, Cd-based compounds, are well-known toxicants and carcinogens to humans. Furthermore, different surface functionalizations are always required for these inorganic nanomaterials so that they can effectively bind to different biological substances such as DNA, proteins, and viruses. These facts prompt the need for nanomaterials with high biocompatibility and bioaffinity. Naturally, bio-organic substances are perfect candidates, however, successful syntheses of bio-organic nanomaterials are lacking to a high degree, in spite of some outstanding achievements based on peptides. Those with controllable morphology on a nanometer scale are even rarer, despite the fact that the geometrical size and shape are influential factors for adapting biological substances such as