Sulfate-containing polysaccharides are a diverse group of natural products and many of them have shown biological activity. Therefore, a growing interest has focused on the chemical preparation of sulfated derivatives from common polysaccharides. The analysis of these complicated, synthetically prepared polysaccharide sulfates typically requires the utilization of several methods. NMR and IR spectroscopy are routinely used to follow the progress of the sulfation reactions and to confirm the presence of covalently bonded sulfate groups in the products.

In this work, untreated starch-rich potato peel waste was used as a starting material in preparation of cationized starch (CS) in water solution with 2-chloro-3-hydroxypropyltrimethylammonium chloride (CHPTAC) as the cationization reagent. The impact of various factors (activation time, temperature, reaction time, the amount of CHPTAC and NaOH) on the degree of substitution (DS) of CS was studied by using experimental design. The DS values were determined by H NMR. The highest DS (0.40) was obtained when the reaction time was 8h, temperature 30°C, the molar ratio of CHPTAC and NaOH to AGU 3 and 3.75, respectively. The prepared CS was successfully used to remove sulfate ions from an aqueous solution with ultrafiltration technique. Sulfate is a major pollutant of water bodies so development of efficient techniques for its removal is detrimental. The removal of sulfate in study was 74% at best.