Chemical structure analyses of phosphorylated chitosan

• FTIR, XPS and solid NMR were used to characterize the structure of phosphorylated chitosan.
• Amino groups were reacted when chitosan was treated by H3PO4/urea and H3PO4/Et3PO4/P2O5.
• Hydroxyl groups were phosphorylated when chitosan was treated by P2O5/CH3SO3H.

Chemical modification of chitosan to generate new bio-functional materials can bring more desirable properties depending on the nature of the groups introduced. Phosphorylated chitosan has attracted interests in recent years. The literature has reported that the phosphorylation of chitosan could be achieved through three different reaction routes, namely, in the presence of H3PO4/urea, H3PO4/Et3PO4/P2O5, or P2O5/CH3SO3H. However, the exact chemical structure of phosphorylated chitosan synthesized by different reaction routes has not been systematically studied and compared. Meanwhile, the most common opinion is that the hydroxyl group in chitosan is the main substitution site. In this work, phosphorylated chitosan was synthesized using three different reaction routes, and the chemical structures of the products were studied by infrared, X-ray photoelectron and 13C NMR spectroscopic characterization. It was observed that in the reaction routes using H3PO4/urea and H3PO4/Et3PO4/P2O5, the amino groups were substituted instead of the hydroxyl groups. In the reaction route using P2O5/CH3SO3H, the amino groups were shielded by the ionic binding with CH3SO3H, and the C-6 hydroxyl groups were phosphorylated. Different structures of the phosphorylated chitosan were proposed based on the characterization results.

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