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Chitosan solubilize
Does anyone have experience with the solubilization of chitosan with acids?
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8 Replies
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Yes.
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lactic acid or glacial acetic acid or other acids? What are the conditions and numbers?
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Acetic acid.
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Conditions: <pH6, whichever acid doesn’t really matter. Maybe don’t go with citric acid as first choice and phytic acid is somewhat incompatible with chitosan. Stay clear of anionic emulsifiers if possible.
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As above, acetic acid worked well for me. Grab yourself some glutaraldehyde and have fun crosslinking it! Can be dilute acetic acid but you’ll obviously be able to dissolve less chitosan in dilute acid solns.
@Leo In all seriousness, curious as to why you want to solubilise chitosan… -
I use chitosan as gelling agent too
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What concentration of chitosan and acetic acid? What conditions are best (temp, time, etc.)?
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@Leo Enough chitosan to do whatever you want it to do but not enough to give a too hard gel. The amount of acid depends on the degree of deacetylation (which you may not know) of chitosan and has to exceed 50% of the free amino moieties in order to bring chitosan into solution. Conditions: Well, get the pH below 6 and keep it below 6 and it works like a charm in cold or hot water and just takes a few minutes depending on the quality of chitosan you use.
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