Study of the kinetics of Bombyx mori chitosan ascorbate formation

Abstract

In this work, for the first time, a water-soluble natural biopolymer of chitosan ascorbate based on Bombyx mori chitosan and ascorbic acid was obtained and kinetic features of the process were determined. Samples of chitosan ascorbate were synthesized, the interaction of chitosan with ascorbic acid was studied by analytical titration. The synthesis was carried out in order to determine the activation energy of formation of the reaction of chitosan ascorbate, in the ratio of chitosan and ascorbic acid (4:1) components for 15 minutes with a reaction temperature ranging from 25 °C to 65 °C. The results of the kinetic studies show that in the interaction under the study the reaction order on ascorbic acid concentration exceeds the reaction order on chitosan concentration, while the reaction activation energy was determined, which equals to 13.38 kJ/mol. This result allows us to conclude that during the formation of chitosan ascorbate at 55 °C the highest equilibrium constant is established, and a further increase in temperature leads to a decrease in the yield and equilibrium constant. The results obtained indicate that with an increase in the concentration of ascorbic acid compared to the one of chitosan, the reaction rate increased almost twice. It was found that with an increase in the reaction time, the average rate of synthesis gradually decreases. This is due to the fact that with an increase in the duration of the reaction in the solution the concentration of unbound (free) ascorbic acid decreases, and as a result, the reaction rate decreases as well.