Document Type : scientific research article
Authors
1
Department of Fisheries, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran.
2
Department of Environment, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran
3
Associate Professor of Department of Fisheries, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran.
Abstract
Chitin is one of the most abundant biopolymers after cellulose, which is present in the cell wall of fungi, the cuticle of insects, and in the exoskeleton of crustaceans such as crabs and shrimps. From the deacetylation of chitin, chitosan is obtained, whose characteristics strongly depend on the degree of deacetylation and its molecular weight. In fact, it can be said that chitosan is the most abundant amino polysaccharide in nature, which is also known as a non-toxic compound. Chitosan has received much attention due to its unique properties such as biocompatibility, biodegradability, antibacterial activity, etc. But due to its low solubility in physiological pH, it is not possible to benefit from many of its properties. Therefore, many attempts have been made to produce its derivatives that have the ability to dissolve in such a condition. One of the most important methods of increasing the solubility of chitosan is its chemical modification, which is done with the so-called quaternization technique. In this method, a modifying agent by establishing a covalent bond with carbon number two of chitosan (C2) increases its solubility in water and at physiological pH. In this article, while re-introducing the unique features of chitosan, various methods of preparing quaternized chitosan using some common chemical compounds such as GTMAC, EPTMAC, CH3I, DMS will be investigated and the characteristics and applications of the produced quaternized chitosan will be described.
Keywords
Main Subjects
)