STRUCTURE AND PROPERTIES OF CHITOSAN CARBOXYMETHYL ETHER

Physical, physicochemical and chemical methods were applied to the study of structure, fractional composition, and properties of carboxymethyl chitosan, a polyampholyte containing carboxyl and amino groups. As a result of the inter-action of ionogenic groups in the carboxymethyl chitosan their dissociation degrees increase against the corresponding values in chitosan and carboxymethyl cellulose, which are polyelectrolytes containing only one type of functional groups. The viscosity properties of dilute solutions of carboxymethyl chitosan suggest to the polyampholytic nature of the substituted polysaccharide and to the intra-salt formation in the pH range 2.5 to 7.5, where the ionization regions of opposite charged ionogenic groups overlap to a great extent.