Determination of the amine content of chitosan by pyrolysis-gas chromatography

Pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry has been applied to the study of N-acetyl-d-glucosamine, chitin and chitosans of varying degrees of deacetylation prepared from chitin. An examination of the pyrograms of samples of chitosan revealed that there is a direct correlation between the amine content and the ratio of the areas of the peaks derived from the glucosamine and N-acety-d-glucosamine moieties.