I'm fabricating membranes from carbohydrate biopolymers like alginate and chitosan. However, membranes produced from carbohydrates are crisp and brittle, which necessitates the use of plasticizer. A paper I read used PEG for chitosan. I'm wondering if PEI can be used instead, as there are properties of PEI that I also want to incorporate in the membrane. Thanks!
PEI might have some plasticizing effect. Remember that in water it will exist with some of the amines protonated as a cationic polymer. With Alginate this will likely cause gelling. The polycationic nature may have other deleterious effects.
Another alternative is poly ethyl oxazoline - like PEG it is water soluble and uncharged (neutral)
James E Hanson Thanks for this suggestion, I'll consider it.
By contrast to PEG, PEI shall cross-link carbohydrates. Depending on the properties of your membrane materials - this could be advantageous for some, but for most of materials containing PEG - it would be easier to control their properties by changing the Mw and concentration. Of course you can try to combine these two additives, but in this case the concentration of PEI should be minimal.
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