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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Albany, California » Western Regional Research Center » Bioproducts Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #426108
Research Project: Bioproducts and Biopolymers from Agricultural Feedstocks

Location: Bioproducts Research

Title: Environmental influence on degradation of chitosan bioplastics

Author
item Orcutt, Kaydren
item McCaffrey, Zachariah
item Klamczynski, Artur
item BLOUNT, JADON - Tidal Vision
item CHENG, YUAN - Tidal Vision
item RALIYA, RAMESH - Tidal Vision
item Kim, Jong Heon
item Orts, William
item Hart-Cooper, William

Submitted to: ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/18/2025
Publication Date: 9/26/2025
Citation: Orcutt, K.B., McCaffrey, Z., Klamczynski, A.P., Blount, J., Cheng, Y., Raliya, R., Kim, J., Orts, W.J., Hart-Cooper, W.M. 2025. Environmental influence on degradation of chitosan bioplastics. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering. 10:45220 – 45231. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.5c04552.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.5c04552

Interpretive Summary: Chitosan flake from shellfish waste were provided by CRADA partner Tidal Vision and used to create chitosan films with varying compositions, mainly by altering the molecular weight of the chitosan flake, the acid used to solubilize the flake, the glycerin concentration, and the solubility of the film via neutralizaiton. Molecular weight and acid had no effect on the solubility of the films. Making the films insoluble in water slowed the initial degradation rate in both high temperature and low temperature compost studies, but did not have an effect on the final degradation percent. A previous paper from our group illustrated how the molecular weight and acid have an effect on the tensile properties, but this paper proves that there is not an effect on the biodegradation, and so by altering the acid, molecular weight, and charge of the films, the tensile properties will change but not necessarily the biodegradation rate of the materials.

Technical Abstract: Mineralization of chitosan flakes and films with varying molecular weights, solubilizing acids, and post-drying treatments was measured over time using a commercial respirometer. While varying molecular weight and solubilizing acid do not result in significant differences in mineralization across degradation conditions (home compost, industrial compost, or marine), neutralization leads to slower initial degradation rates for home compost (1.84E-02 vs. 6.56E-02 days-1) and industrial compost (2.58E-02 vs. 1.10E-1 days-1) conditions. Having mechanisms for tuning the film properties, particularly initial degradation rates and not the long-term degradation percent, increases the applicability of chitosan films as sustainably produced replacements for petroleum-derived plastics in agriculture, industry and medicine.