title: Salt-assisted acid hydrolysis of chitosan to oligomers under microwave irradiation.
abstract: The effect of inorganic salts such as sodium chloride on the hydrolysis of chitosan in a microwave field was investigated. While it is known that microwave heating is a convenient way to obtain a wide range of products of different molecular weights only by changing the reaction time and/or the radiation power, the addition of some inorganic salts was shown to effectively accelerate the degradation of chitosan under microwave irradiation. The molecular weight of the degraded chitosan obtained by microwave irradiation was considerably lower than that obtained by traditional heating. Moreover, the molecular weight of degraded chitosan obtained by microwave irradiation assisted under the conditions of added salt was considerably lower than that obtained by microwave irradiation without added salt. Furthermore, the effect of ionic strength of the added salts was not linked with the change of molecular weight. FTIR spectral analyses demonstrated that a significantly shorter time was required to obtain a satisfactory molecular weight by the microwave irradiation-assisted inorganic salt method than by microwave irradiation without inorganic salts and conventional technology.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Oceanology, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, China.
authors.forename: Ronge
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Xing
authors.forename: Song
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Huahua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Zhanyong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Pibo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Cuiping
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Zhien
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Pengcheng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D002122:Calcium Chloride / Q000737:chemistry; D048271:Chitosan / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000528:radiation effects*; D006868:Hydrolysis; D008872:Microwaves; D009844:Oligosaccharides / Q000138:chemical synthesis; D009994:Osmolar Concentration; D011189:Potassium Chloride / Q000737:chemistry; D012965:Sodium Chloride / Q000737:chemistry*; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; D014783:Viscosity
chemical_list: D009844:Oligosaccharides; D012965:Sodium Chloride; D011189:Potassium Chloride; D048271:Chitosan; D002122:Calcium Chloride