Study on the degradation of chitosan by pulsed electric fields treatment
Wen-bo Luo, Zhong Han, Xin-an Zeng, Shu-juan Yu and John F Kennedy
Innovative Food Science & Emerging Technologies, Volume 11, Issue 4, October 2010, Pages 587-591
2010
บทคัดย่อ
Chitosan solution was processed by applying pulsed electric fields (PEF) with different strengths up to 25 kV cm−1. Changes of the physicochemical properties of chitosan, such as molecular weight and crystallinity degree, were measured by analyses of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), viscosity molecular weight (Mv), X-ray diffractometry (XRD), FTIR and UV spectra. The results showed that after being treated at 25 kV cm−1, the chitosan granules were significantly deformed with many pits and cracks appeared on the surface. Mv was decreased with the increasing electric field strength, for example, the Mv was decreased from 2.81 × 105 Da (initial chitosan) to 1.54 × 105 Da after the PEF treatment at 25 kV cm−1. Meanwhile, the crystalline region of the treated sample was significantly damaged from XRD patterns. All results showed that the PEF technique is a possible method to obtain low molecular-weight chitosan.