Microwave Assisted Synthesis of Chitosan Nanoparticles

Abstract

Chitosan nanoparticles (CHN) were prepared based on ionotropic gelation between low moleculer weight chitosan and sodium tripolyphosphate (TPP) under microwave irradiation. Particle size, zeta potential, and FT-IR techniques were used for characterization of CHN. The influence of reaction time on the nanoparticle size distribution was investigated, and the results showed that the microwave irradiation method evidently decreases the reaction times and particle size over the conventional method. It was determined by the results of the zeta potential measurements that synthesized CHN under microwave irradiation clearly exhibits more homogeneous and stable dispersion.

Keywords:

• Chitosan nanoparticle
• tripolyphosphate
• microwave irradiation
• ionotropic gelation

Acknowledgement

Financial support for this research from the Selcuk University Scientific Research Project (Number 10401049) is gratefully acknowledged.