Effects of deacetylation degree of chitosan on the structure of aerogels.

Chitosan aerogels, obtained by (supercritical) CO drying of hydrogels, are novel adsorbents because of their large surface area and high porosity. Intrinsic properties of chitosan such as molecular weight (MW) and degree of deacetylation (DDA) had large impacts on the characteristics of chitosan aerogels. Although there are a few studies about the effects of solely DDA or MW on aerogel structure, none of them has focused on the mutual effects.