Intrinsic viscosity and conformational parameters of chitosan chains

The dependence of the intrinsic viscosity [η] on the weight average degree of polymerization Pw of chitosans in aqueous acid media is discussed in terms of the Yamakawa-Fujii theory for the worm-like cylinder model. The conformational characteristics (Kuhn statistical segment length and Flory characteristic ratio) are estimated. They increase linearly with th reciprocal of the square root of salt concentration. The "intrinsic" values for uncharged chains are comparable to those for cellulose and lower man those for chitin. © 2011 RASYAN. All rights reserved