Abstract

Highly deacetylated chitosan (CS) reacted with anhydride acetic (Ac2O) to produce chitosan with various degree of deacetylation (DDA) depending on the CS/Ac2O ratios. The structure of products was characterized by FT-IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, and the molecular weight was identified by GPC. The DDA of products decreases as the CS/Ac2O ratio increases. The products with less than 80 % DDA were soluble in water with a wide pH range. The water-soluble chitosan can be used in many biomedical applications such as manufacturing drug delivery systems or functionalized iron oxide nanoparticles.