Detection of polymolecular associations in hydrophobized chitosan derivatives using fluorescent probes

The microenvironment formed by lauroyl and stearoyl derivatives of chitosan in solution has been studied using two fluorescent probes, pyrene and nabumetone. Existence or not of microdomains formed by polymolecular associations, the inherent hydrophobicity of them in aqueous solution, and the influence of degree of substitution (DS) of derivatives were investigated by emission properties of pyrene and strengthened by the photophysical behavior of nabumetone. Additionally, the ratio between the fluorescence intensities of first (approximately 372 nm) to the third (approximately 384 nm) bands of the emission spectrum of pyrene was used to determine the critical aggregation concentration (CAC). In a previous work, it was already reported the characterization of chitosan derivatives by three spectroscopic techniques ((13)C-NMR, (1)H-NMR and infrared), as well as data on the solubility and swelling-index of them. In addition of that, the new results show that the investigated lauroyl and stearoyl derivatives of chitosan are expected to be potential models for applications in the medical field.