Influence of chitosan characteristics on polymer properties. I: Crystallographic properties

The properties of chitosan depend on several parameters including its origin (shrimp, squid, fungi etc), characteristics (mol fraction of N-acetylation; molecular weight) and treatments used to condition it (dissolving, precipitation, drying). These parameters can influence the material's sorption properties for metal ions. It has been suggested that the changes in sorption properties are related to the crystallinity of the material. The present work focuses on the study of the crystallographic properties of samples prepared from shrimp, squid and fungi sources, with different characteristics and conditioned by several physical treatments (dissolving, reprecipitation and drying, including oven-drying, freeze-drying), prior to subsequent studies of their sorption properties for platinum (discussed in Part II of this manuscript). (C) 2003 Society of Chemical Industry.