Effect of molecular weight of chitosan on properties of chitosan-Zn nanoparticles

The chitosan-Zn nanoparticles were prepared used the TPP as ionic crosslinking agent and the properties of chitosan-Zn nanoparticles were studied. EDS and XPS results showed that when the chitosan molecular weight was 200 KDa, Zn element had a higher content in chitosan-Zn nanoparticles, which indicated the coordination reaction between Zn 2+ and chitosan at –NH 2 and –OH. Chitosan with larger molecular weight resulted a larger mean size and zeta potential, the mean size of chitosan-200-Zn was 865.9 nm and the system of chitosan-200-Zn tended to be a stable system with zeta potential of 29.3 mV. The molecular weight of chitosan affected the wettability of chitosan-Zn nanoparticles. While the molecular weight of chitosan had no effect on the crystalline structure of chitosan-Zn nanoparticles. The findings of this study had illustrated the effect of chitosan molecular weight on the properties of chitosan-Zn nanoparticles.