| 초록 |
Recently, chitosan has been widely applied in biotechnology, water-treatment, agriculture, medication and food science. Chitosan is the product of partial deacetylation of chitin, the most abundant natural polymer widely existing in exoskeleton of crustaceans. Generally, chitosan has a high molecular weight and low solubility in aqueous solvent. This limits its applications, especially in medicine and in food science. In order to improve its solubility, the degradation of chitosan using chemical solvents is usually used to reduce its molecular weight. The aim of our research is to investigate the radiation irradiation effect such as gamma ray and electron beam on chitosan. Radiation technology is usually used for depolymerization of materials in the solid or solution states without the uses of chemical solvents. Gamma ray and electron beam irradiations were carried out on chitosan samples in the range of 0∼200 kGy. Their chemical structures and molecular weight were characterized by FT-IR and GPC. And also the thermal properties were analyzed by DSC. |
