Chem. J. Chinese Universities ›› 2013, Vol. 34 ›› Issue (2): 474.doi: 10.7503/cjcu20120470

• Polymer Chemistry • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Determination of the Deacetylation Degree of Chitosans by Fiber-optic Refractive Index Sensing Technique

HE Wei-Xin, TAN Chun-Hua, HUANG Xu-Guang   

  1. Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Nanophotonic Functional Materials and Device, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China
  • Received:2012-05-14 Online:2013-02-10 Published:2013-01-21
  • Contact: Xu-Guang Huang E-mail:huangxg@scnu.edu.cn

Abstract:

We described a novel determination method of the deacetylation degree(DD) of chitosans by fiber-optic refractive index sensing technique. The variation of the refractive index of the chitosan solution was monitored using a fiber sensor based on a two-channel Fresnel reflection technique. According to the volume of the alkali between the equivalent points, the deacetylation degree of chitosans can be calculated. With our method, DD values of three chitosan samples were determined and agreed with the results from 1H NMR spectroscopy, which proves that it is accurate and reliable for the determination of the DD of chitosans in industrial application. This method is simple, cheap to construct, with good accuracy and reproducibility.

Key words: Chitosan, Deacetylation degree, Fiber sensor, Refractive index, Acid-base titration

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