2009 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Synthesis of graft copolymers based on chitin and chitosan via ring-opening graft copolymerization of lactide

Research Project

Project/Area Number	19750188
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Polymer/Textile materials
Research Institution	Ibaraki National College of Technology
Principal Investigator	MIYASHITA Yoshiharu Ibaraki National College of Technology, 物質工学科, 准教授 (00293259)
Project Period (FY)	2007 – 2009
Keywords	キチン / キトサン / ポリ乳酸 / ラクチド / グラフト共重合
Research Abstract	Graft copolymers based on chitin, chitosan and their derivatives were synthesized as environmentally conformable polymeric materials. Chitin-graft-poly(lactic acid) and chitosan- graft-poly(lactic acid) were obtained via ring-opening graft copolymerization of lactide onto polysaccharides. However, the molar substitution (MS) of these copolymers, defined as an average number of introduced lactil units, were so low that physical properties of chitin and chitosan were not improved. On the other hand, phthaloyl chitosan-graft-poly(lactic acid) having comparatively high value of lactyl MS was successfully synthesized. For this copolymer, several marked changes in physical properties, such as solubility and thermal transition behavior, were confirmed.