3.2.2. Activation energy of chitosan hydrolysis
The initial stage of the hydrolysis (up to 5 h) was fitted with a
first order reaction model, x = 1
−
ekt, where x is glucosamine yield,
k the reaction constant and t the reaction time. The correlation
coefficient is above 0.9. The reaction constant is correlated with
temperature (T) using Arrhenius equation, k = Ae−Ea/RT, where A is
constant, R the gas constant and Ea is the activation energy. The
activation energy is determined to be 78 kJ/mol and is independent
of acid concentration.