ABSTRACT
Green technique for hydrolysis of chitosan was developed using novel Brønsted Acidic Ionic Liquids (BAILs) as homogenous reusable catalysts. Efficiency of BAILs in controlling stochastic and irregular breakdown of chitosan was compared with that of mineral acids. Structural elucidation of the novel BAILs was performed using H1-NMR evaluation and supplemented using mass spectroscopy. Additionally, thermal characterization was conducted using TGA-DTA analysis, while acidity was estimated by deriving the Hammet acidity function. BAILs investigated in this work enabled consistent production of LMWCS variants, with minimum formation of residual impurities. Around 80 % reduction in molecular weight was noted as compared to original under extreme conditions employed. Further, Box-Behnken Design (BBD) was implemented to optimize effect of processing parameters for conversion of chitosan to low molecular weight congeners.
