The synergistic effect of gamma irradiation and alkaline soaking at low temperature on the pre-deacetylation of α-chitin: Optimization by design of experiment.

The effect of gamma irradiation and alkaline soaking time at low temperature (4 °C) as a pretreatment of α-chitin before its N-deacetylation and the effect temperature, NaOH concentration and the reaction time traditionally used during the deacetylation process were studied by applying a factorial experimental design. The top and bottom levels applied for each factor were 1-25 kGy for γ irradiation dose, 2-18 hours for alkaline soaking time at low temperature (4 °C), 50-85 °C for temperature, 35-60% for NaOH concentration and 30-90 min for reaction time. The measured response of deacetylation degree (DD) was determined by FTIR.