An optimised method to determine the degree of acetylation of chitin and chitosan by FTIR spectroscopy.
Linking up the user-friendly and low-priced FTIR with the more sophisticated and high-priced 13C CP/MAS NMR spectroscopies, an improved method to determine the degree of acetylation (DA) of chitins and chitosans was outlined. The method was established for the most complex polymorphic form (alpha-chitin) and for the most problematic range of DA values (most acetylated samples) and can easily be extended to the other polymorphic forms (beta- and gamma-chitins) and to other ranges of DA values.
Duarte
M L
ML
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, CECUL, University of Lisbon, 1749-016, Lisbon, Portugal. mlduarte@fc.ul.pt
Ferreira
M C
MC
Marvão
M R
MR
Rocha
João
J
D000107:Acetylation; D000818:Animals; D002686:Chitin / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000737:chemistry*; D048271:Chitosan; D003445:Crustacea; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D011825:Radar; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared / Q000379:methods*
D002686:Chitin; D048271:Chitosan