Biopolymers | Determination of the molar mass as quality control parameter of chitosan
The application of biopolymer Chitosan ranges from agriculture, food industry to high-end pharmaceutical and medical products. Here the molar mass is the parameter of interest. The Lovis microviscometer combines precise and fast viscosity measurements for subsequent molar mass calculations.
Chitosan is an amino sugar-containing polysaccharide obtained from crab and shrimp shells. Applications require knowledge of its main physicochemical properties, especially molar mass, molecular weight distribution and degree of deacetylation (DD). These parameters influence solubility, viscosity of solutions, and its biological activity.
One technique which can be used for quality control is dilute solution viscometry. Polymers are diluted in appropriate solvents and the viscosity of the pure solvent is set in relation to the viscosity of the polymer solution. This procedure yields the relative viscosity, a basic parameter from which many others can be calculated.
Intrinsic viscosity can be measured due to the ability of polymers to increase the viscosity of a solvent in the absence of intermolecular interactions between the polymer molecules. Multipoint measurements allow for following the evolution of relative viscosity as a function of increasing concentration.
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