Co-assembly in chitosan–surfactant mixtures: thermodynamics, structures, interfacial properties and applications

In this review, different aspects characterizing chitosan–surfactant mixtures are summarized and compared. Chitosan is a bioderived cationic polysaccharide that finds wide-ranged applications in various field, e.g., medical or food industry, in which synergistic effects with surfactant can play a fundamental role. In particular, the behavior of chitosan interacting with strong and weak anionic, nonionic as well as cationic surfactants is reviewed. We put a focus on oppositely charged systems, as they exhibit the most interesting features. In that context, we discuss the thermodynamic description of the interaction and in particular the structural changes as they occur as a function of the mixed systems and external parameters. Moreover, peculiar properties of chitosan coated phospholipid vesicles are summarized. Finally, their co-assembly at interfaces is briefly reviewed. Despite the behavior of the mentioned systems might strongly differ, resulting in a high variety of properties, few general rules can be pointed out which improve the understanding of such complex systems. [Display omitted] •Review of supramolecular structures in chitosan/surfactant systems•Mixtures: chitosan/surfactans, fatty acids, and phospholipids are reviewed.•Thermodynamics of self-assembled complexes is discussed.•Co-assembly at interfaces is reviewed.•Use of chitosan/surfactants mixtures in different fields is described.