To elucidate the intrinsic rheological properties of carboxymethyl chitin (CM-chitin) from the shell of red snow cyab (Chinonecetes japonicus), the configuration and polyelectrolyte behavior of CM-chitin in low concentration solution were investigated...
To elucidate the intrinsic rheological properties of carboxymethyl chitin (CM-chitin) from the shell of red snow cyab (Chinonecetes japonicus), the configuration and polyelectrolyte behavior of CM-chitin in low concentration solution were investigated. Unperturbed dimensions were ranged from $127{\AA}\;to\;113{\AA}$ as root mean square end-to-end distance$(r_0)$, $52{\AA}$ to $46{\AA}$ as radius of gyration$(S_0)$. The intramolecular expansion tarter(a) was not varied with molecular weight and was 2.1. And effective bond length $(b_0)$ was $14.5{\AA}$. In perturbed condition, Flory constant was $2.35\times10^{21}$. When ionic strength were 0.02 and 1.0, intrinsic viscosity were 1.95dl/g and 1,06 dl/g, respectively. These results suggested that CM-chitin is a polyelectrolyte in aqueous media. At infinite ionic strength, intrinsic viscosity was 0.91dl/g. The intrinsic stiffness of CM-chitin backbone was estimated by evaluating the stiffness parameter (B) as 0.11 and agreed well with the results of k-carrageenan.