The role of chitosan on polyvinyl chloride (PVC)-glycerol biocomposites for blood bag application

The common blood bag in the market is made from a mixture of PVC and plasticizer. But the a number of occurrences where pockets of heavily polluted bacteria, blood requires blood bags which has the antibacterial characteristic. Antibacterial properties on the bags of blood can be raised with the addition of chitosan. This research aim is to know the influence of chitosan membrane biocomposite PVC-Glycerol against its biological and physical properties. Chitosan dissolved with a concentration of 0 wt/v%; wt/v 0.5%; 1 wt/v%; 1.5 v/wt% wt/v and 2 wt/v% mixed with glycerol with a 1: 1 ratio. Then the mixture was mixed with PVC solution 15% and formed into a membrane by using the glass plates. Furthermore, the membranes are characterized using tensile test, hemolytic test, and antibacterial test. The physical characteristics of the tensile test indicate that the elongation percentage was 2.22-96.43% and tensile strength was 3.6-8 MPa. The test result of the hemolytic test and antibacterial test showed that biocomposite membrane of PVC-Glycerol-Chitosan are hemocompatible because it has a hemolysis percentage < 5%, while antibacterial test results showed that the membrane has a weak anti-bacterial due to bacterial inhibition zone diameter < 5 mm. Based on the characterization result, biocomposite membrane of PVC-Glycerol-Chitosan can be used for blood bag candidate.