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Updated: Aug 13, 2026

Preparation of Expanded Chitin Foams and their Use in the Removal of Aqueous Copper
Published on: February 27, 2021
Dual mesomorphic assemblage of chitin normal acylates and rapid enthalpy relaxation of their side chains
Yoshikuni Teramoto1, Tomoya Miyata, Yoshiyuki Nishio
1Division of Forest and Biomaterials Science, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan.
Abstract:
Chitin derivatives having normalacyl groups (C(n)H(2n-1)O-; n = 4-20) were synthesized with pyridine, p-toluenesulfonyl chloride, and normal alkanoic acid in an N,N-dimethylacetamide-lithium chloride homogeneous system. The products (C(n)-ACs; degree of acyl substitution, DS = 1.7-1.9) showed an n-dependent thermal transition behavior: no evident transition (n = 4-10), a glass transition (n = 12 and 14), and a pseudo-first-order phase transition (n = 16-20), the latter two occurring usually below room temperature when examined by differential scanning calorimetry. Wide-angle X-ray diffractometry (WAXD) at 20 degrees C displayed a sharp diffraction peak (2theta = 2 degrees -7 degrees ) and a diffuse halo (2theta approximately 20 degrees ) for the respective C(n)-ACs. The former d-spacing (1.5-3.6 nm) increased with an increase in n to yield two stages of mutually different increasing rates, which reflects a systematic n-dependence of the period of a layered structure of the main chains. The molecular assembly of C(n)-ACs exhibited "dual mesomorphy"; nematic ordering for the semirigid carbohydrate trunk and smectic one for the flexible side chains. On the other hand, WAXD profiles of C(n)-ACs (n = 14-18) indicated almost no temperature dependence from -150 to +220 degrees C. Therefore, it was reasonably assumed that the pseudo-first-order transition observed in thermograms of C(n)-ACs (n = 16-20) was due to the enthalpy relaxation of the side-chain assemblage. An insight was provided into the kinetics of the characteristic aging behavior as a liquid-crystalline glass, in comparison with the corresponding data for other noncrystalline macromolecules.
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