@article {Silva2011,
	title = {{Green processing of porous chitin structures for biomedical applications combining ionic liquids and supercritical fluid technology}},
	journal = {Acta Biomaterialia},
	volume = {7},
	number = {3},
	year = {2011},
	note = {n/a},
	pages = {1166{\textendash}1172},
	abstract = {<p>The application of green chemistry principles in the processing of materials for advanced technologies is a steadily increasing field of research. In this work porous chitin-based materials were developed by combining the processing of chitin using ionic liquids (ILs) as a green solvent together with the use of supercritical fluid technology (SCF) as clean technology. Chitin was dissolved in 1-butyl-3-imidazolium acetate, followed by regeneration of the polymer in ethanol in specific moulds. The IL was removed using Soxhlet extraction and successive steps of extraction with SCF using carbon dioxide/ethanol ratios of 50/50 and 70/30. The developed porous chitin-based structures (ChIL) can be classified as mesoporous materials, with very low density and high porosity. The cytotoxicity of ChIL extracts was investigated using L929 fibroblast-like cells, and the results demonstrated that the produced materials have extremely low cytotoxicity levels. Therefore, the findings suggest that the porous chitin structures may be potential candidates for a number of biomedical applications, including tissue engineering. {\textcopyright} 2010 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.</p>
},
	keywords = {biomaterials, Biomedical applications, Chitin, ionic liquids, Supercritical drying},
	isbn = {1878-7568 (Electronic)$\backslash$r1742-7061 (Linking)},
	issn = {17427061},
	doi = {10.1016/j.actbio.2010.09.041},
	author = {Silva, Simone S and Duarte, Ana Rita C and Carvalho, Ana Paula and Jo{\~a}o F. Mano and Reis, Rui L}
}
