Degradation of chitosan by synergetic treatment of irradiation and chemical

The degradation of solid state chitosan by irradiation at solid state and synergetic method were investigated in this paper. Four factors which affect the degradation effect of chitosan: irradiation, H2O2 concentration, the ratio of solvent and solute (volum/weight), acetic acid were analyzed. The first three were measured by multiple comparisons of the different level and variance analysis, and infrared spectroscopy was employed to analyze check the degradation products. It is concluded that chitosan's viscosity, and average molecular weight was decreased from 8.7 x 105 to 104 at the condition of 15% H2O2, HAc1.5%, 4:1 H2O2 solution/chitosan, 110 kGy irradiation, and the chemical structure of treat chitosan products was almost no changed. (authors)