A New Approach for the Flocculation Mechanism of Chitosan

A peak III/I ratio (δpeak) in pyrene-fluorescence spectrum was used to measure the polarity of microenvironment of chitosan adsorbing pyrene molecules. The authors detected the pyrene-fluorescence spectrum of chitosan with different degrees of deacetylation (DD) and determined the relationship between the flocculation of bentonite colloid and the δpeak of chitosan with a different molecular weight (MW) and DD. It can be concluded that MW rather than DD plays a key role in the flocculation and that bond bridging rather than charge neutralization dominates the flocculation with chitosan from a microenvironmental structure of view.