The effective utilization of abundant α-chitin resources for materials engineering applications requires methods for controlling the physicochemical properties of α-chitin nanofiber (NF) dispersions. Herein, the relationship between the degree of acetylation (DA) of α-chitin and the physicochemical properties of α-chitin nanofibers (α-ChNFs) was investigated. α-Chitin with different DAs was prepared by varying the deacetylation treatment time. These α-chitin samples were disintegrated into NFs using wet pulverization. The average width of the α-ChNFs decreased with decreasing DA. Furthermore, the transmittance and viscosity of the α-ChNF dispersions increased with decreasing DA. We successfully developed a simple model for estimating the average width of α-ChNFs with different DAs. These results indicate that the DA is an effective parameter for defining and controlling the physicochemical properties of α-ChNFs.

中文翻译：

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乙酰化程度对α-几丁质纳米纤维理化性质的影响。

有效利用丰富的α-甲壳素资源进行材料工程应用需要控制α-甲壳素纳米纤维（NF）分散体的理化性质的方法。在此，研究了α-几丁质的乙酰化度（DA）与α-几丁质纳米纤维（α-ChNFs）的理化性质之间的关系。通过改变脱乙酰基处理时间制备具有不同DAs的α-甲壳素。使用湿法粉碎将这些α-几丁质样品分解成NF。α-ChNFs的平均宽度随DA的减小而减小。此外，α-ChNF分散体的透射率和粘度随着DA的降低而增加。我们成功开发了一个简单的模型来估算具有不同DA的α-ChNF的平均宽度。