High efficient fabrication of chitosan micropowder by combination of gamma radiation and jet pulverization

We describe here a novel approach to the high efficient fabrication of chitosan micropowder by combining radiation technique and jet pulverization. The radiation dose is at 100–300 kGy. Size of microparticles in ethanol dispersion determined by dynamic laser scattering (DLS) is in the range of 5–20 μm, depending on the radiation dose and degree of deacetylation (DD). However, Scanning electron micrography (SEM) measurement shows a size range of 0.1–10 μm. FTIR spectra indicate that chemical structure of the micropowder is retained, while the decomposition temperature measured decreases slightly as compared to the control.