Studies on chitin

Abstract

Following points were found from our experiments concerning the viscosity of the aqueous solution of glycol chitin. (1) The relation between the intrinsic viscosity, -[η], and the degree of polymerisation; P, for glycol chitin was found to agree with H. Staudinger's equation as follows : [formula omitted] Where η sp is for the specific viscosity; C for the concentration of the solution in grams per lite ; and Km for a constant characteristic for each polymeric series. The value of Km for glycol chitin was 12×10-4 which was perfectly in agreement with that of water soluble cellulose derivatives such as glycol cellulose or methyl cellulose. Thus, it was concluded that chitin was similar to cellulose, a long chain molecule formed from β-1, 4-glu cosidic linkage of acetyl glucosamine. (2) The degree of polymerisation of glycol chitin was 851 which was calculated from the above equation, where Km is 12×10-4. Accordingly, it is sure that the degree of polymerisation of natural chitin would be comparable to that of natural cellulose. © 1950, Japan Society for Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Agrochemistry. All rights reserved.