A mechanochemical method to produce polyethylenimine-grafted chitosan nanocrystal sorbent

Chitin is a biopolymer extracted from various biomass waste streams including crustaceans, cephalopods, insects, and fungus in large scale. It is the second most abundant biopolymer after cellulose and as such, constitutes the core component of the shell-biorefinery, as a part of blue-biorefinery. Chitosan, as the deacetylated version of chitin, features unique and attractive properties such as antimicrobial ability, biocompatibility, and biodegradability, applicable to many fields including biomedicine, food, agriculture, cosmetics, and water treatment. Many of the applications of chitosan was a result of its amine functionality. Solid-state methodologies such as mechanochemistry and aging are well suited in the context of biomass conversion and functionalization. Nanomaterials of polysaccharides such as cellulose and chitin/chitosan has been a hot area in research. Studies on cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs), chitin nanosrystals (ChNC), and chitosan nanocrystals (ChsNC) and their applications have demonstrated huge potential in this class of materials. In this project we expect to explore phase transfer catalyzed mechanochemical methods for ChsNC functionalization, to development fundamental knowledge of the scope and mechanism of such reactions.

Faculty Supervisor:

Audrey Moores

Student:

Partner:

The University of Tokyo

Discipline:

Physics

Sector:

Education

University:

McGill University

Program: