Influence of degree of deacetylation on critical concentration of chitosan/dichloroacetic acid liquid‐crystalline solution

We prepared chitosans with various degrees of deacetylation (DDAs) by mixing completely deacetylated chitosan and acetic anhydride at room temperature without serious degradation and O‐substitution. We obtained a standard curve to measure DDA by plotting the IR absorbance ratio of A₁₅₆₀/A₂₈₈₀ against the known DDAs (from 1–100%) of 10 specimens. The effect of DDA on the critical concentration (C*) of chitosan/dichloroacetic acid solutions required to form mesophase was investigated by optical methods. A maximum C* value of 23 wt % appeared at a relative medium DDA (～20%). The effect was explained by the disordering of chains with medium composition ratios of the copolymer of glucosamine and N‐acetyl glucosamine. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 83: 1204–1208, 2002