Reaction kinetics of glycidyl trimethyl ammonium chloride and chitosan in 1-allyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride

The modification of chitosan in ionic liquids through homogeneous reactions has advantages including shorter time and simple post-treatment and the generated chitosan derivatives have high degrees of subsititution and good reproducibility. In this paper, we studied the reaction kinetics of glycidyl trimethyl ammonium chloride and chitosan in 1-allyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride. Chitosan concentration, temperature, and reaction time were studied to determine their influence on reaction kinetics. The results indicated that reaction rate increased with increases of both chitosan concentration and temperature. A first-order kinetics equation was generated, where the relationship between reaction rate constant and temperature was determined.