Influence of ultraviolet-irradiated oxygen on depolymerization of chitosan

In the present paper, the depolymerization of chitosan was carried out by the ultraviolet-irradiated oxygen treatment. Influence of reaction conditions on depolymerization of chitosan was investigated. The chemical structure of the depolymerized chitosan was characterized by FT-IR and 13C NMR spectra. The FT-IR and 13C NMR spectra suggested that there was no obvious modification of chemical structure of the depolymerized chitosan. The X-ray diffraction analysis showed that crystalline structure of chitosan can be destroyed by ultraviolet-irradiated oxygen. The use of depolymerization of chitosan by ultraviolet-irradiated oxygen treatment can be a convenient, timesaving, and cost-efficient method for replacing the expensive and time-consuming enzymatic or chemical methods that are currently used to depolymerize chitosan.