Effect of Organic Acid and Degradation Condition on Degradation Speed of Chitosan

Reaction time,temperature,concentration of acid and different kinds of organic acid to the degradation speed of chitosan are studied.Large differences of the degradation speed of chitosan exist in different organic acid.With chitosan being degraded in oxalic acids,citric acids,succinic acids,malic acid and tartaric acid,the fastest speed of degradation is in oxalic acids and the slowest speed is in malic acid.The trend of degression of chitosan molecular weight becomes slow with delay of reaction.The speed of degradation accelerated with the rise of temperature and reach the fastest speed at 50～70 ℃.The speed of degradation also increased with the concentration of acid.