Authors: N Yaghobi
Publish Date: 2012/07/28
Volume: 17, Issue: 4, Pages: 812-817
Abstract
Chitosan samples with different molecular weights Mw and degree of deacetylation DD were prepared by controlling operating conditions throughout the multistage alkali treatment The temperature of the reaction time duration and number of reaction steps were considered effective parameters A database was developed for chitosan preparation in order to achieve high degrees of deacetylation and control the molecular weight of chitosan without changing other molecular structures The number of treatments and the duration of each step of deacetylation significantly affected molecular weight so that two samples were obtained with a DD of 99 and two different molecular weights ranging from 466×105 to 293×105 Based on these results the highest molecular weight obtained using the multistage treatment without decreasing DD was 532×105 with a DD of 9667 Also the morphological studies indicate that the molecular weight of chitosan has a significant effect on the pore size of the prepared scaffolds However this effect is critical In other words the pore size will increase by increasing molecular weight of chitosan from low upto medium molecular weight and when it reached to high molecular weight the pore size is decreased
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