| Popis: |
Chitosan of different degrees of deacetylation have been prepared from chitin. Pyrolysis-mass spectra of these chitosan samples in the ion source of a mass spectrometer were examined to check for a correlation with the degree of deacetylation, as represented by the amine content. The results indicate that as the degree of deacetylation increases, the peak ratios 80:60, 67:60 and 80:42 increase to a limit, representing the limit of deacetylation of chitin. The 80 and 67 fragments originate from the d -glucosamine moiety of the polymer and the 60 and 42 fragments from the N-ethyl- d -glucosamine moiety. For chitin, the predicted values of these ratios are expected to be low when compared to chitosan, and this is borne out by the experimental data. |
