Preparation and characterization of Low molecular weight chitosan by cellulase digestion

Abstract

Chitosan is up to present the only discovered cationic natural sugar. Moreover, small molecule chitosan is essentially valued as it is extraordinary suitable for fabrication of nanosize particle encapsulated medicine delivery system. Therefore, preparation of small-molecule chitosan has significant applications. 10% concentration cellulase to digest raw CS (Mw=1.5×105) resulting of 4.9×104 of LWCS, which are successively confirmed by FT-IR characterization, XRD analysis, DD testing and viscosity comparison. It verified enzyme digestion is an effective tool for LWCS preparation.