摘要：The thermal depolymerization of chitosan and alkaline deacetylation of chitin were characterized by measurement of viscosity, gel permeation chromatography (GPC), potentiometric titration (PT), and proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy ( NMR). The depolymerization rates (DR) measured by kinematic viscosity (KV), apparent viscosity (AV), and GPC (Mw) until 4 h of treatment were , , and % and for 5 to 10 h of treatment they decreased slowly to produce of , , and % . The mole fraction of N-acetylglucosamine residues of chitosans was not modified after 10 h of thermal treatment at 100°C. The initial values of chitosan without any treatment were and and of chitosan treated for 10 h were and . The variables used to characterize the depolymerization process showed a good correlation. Six hours of thermal treatment as sufficient to obtain chitosans with a molar mass 90% smaller than that of the control chitosan without treatment.
