Effect of the degree of acetylation on the physicochemical properties of α-chitin nanofibers

Junnosuke Machida; Shin Suenaga; Mitsumasa Osada

doi:10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2020.03.213

Effect of the degree of acetylation on the physicochemical properties of α-chitin nanofibers

Int J Biol Macromol. 2020 Jul 15:155:350-357. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2020.03.213. Epub 2020 Mar 27.

Authors

Junnosuke Machida¹, Shin Suenaga¹, Mitsumasa Osada²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry and Materials, Faculty of Textile Science and Technology, Shinshu University, 3-15-1, Tokida, Ueda, Nagano 386-8567, Japan.
² Department of Chemistry and Materials, Faculty of Textile Science and Technology, Shinshu University, 3-15-1, Tokida, Ueda, Nagano 386-8567, Japan. Electronic address: osadam@shinshu-u.ac.jp.

PMID: 32229206
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2020.03.213

Abstract

The effective utilization of abundant α-chitin resources for materials engineering applications requires methods for controlling the physicochemical properties of α-chitin nanofiber (NF) dispersions. Herein, the relationship between the degree of acetylation (DA) of α-chitin and the physicochemical properties of α-chitin nanofibers (α-ChNFs) was investigated. α-Chitin with different DAs was prepared by varying the deacetylation treatment time. These α-chitin samples were disintegrated into NFs using wet pulverization. The average width of the α-ChNFs decreased with decreasing DA. Furthermore, the transmittance and viscosity of the α-ChNF dispersions increased with decreasing DA. We successfully developed a simple model for estimating the average width of α-ChNFs with different DAs. These results indicate that the DA is an effective parameter for defining and controlling the physicochemical properties of α-ChNFs.

Keywords: Chitin; Deacetylation; Nanofiber; Wet pulverization.

MeSH terms

Acetylation
Chemical Phenomena
Chitin / chemistry*
Nanofibers / chemistry*
Viscosity

Substances

Chitin