The degradation of chitosan by means of ultrasound irradiation and its combination with heterogeneous (TiO(2)) was investigated. Emphasis was given on the effect of additives on degradation rate constants. Ultrasound irradiation (24 kHz) was provided by a sonicator, while an ultraviolet source of 16 W was used for UV irradiation. The extent of sonolytic degradation increased with increasing ultrasound power (in the range 30-90 W), while the presence of TiO(2) in the dark generally had little effect on degradation. On the other hand, TiO(2) sono-photocatalysis led to complete chitosan degradation in 60 min with increasing catalyst loading. TiO(2) sonophotocatalysis was always faster than the respective individual processes due to the enhanced formation of reactive radicals as well as the possible ultrasound-induced increase of the active surface area of the catalyst. The degraded chitosans were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and average molecular weight of ultrasonicated chitosan was determined by measurements of relative viscosity of samples. The results show that the total degree of deacetylation (DD) of chitosan did not change after degradation and the decrease of molecular weight led to transformation of crystal structure. A negative order for the dependence of the reaction rate on total molar concentration of chitosan solution within the degradation process was suggested.

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In this study, the effect of power of ultrasound, temperature, and concentration of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) solution on the rate of ultrasonic degradation were investigated, and a kinetic model based on viscometry data was used to calculate the rate constants in different conditions. To investigation of effect of ultrasonic power on the degradation of CMC, the power of ultrasound was increased and observed that the viscosity of the CMC solution was decreased with an increase in the power of ultrasound, but the extent of the degradation in a constant power was found to decrease with an increase in concentration or temperature. The ultrasonic degradation of CMC solutions was carried out at different temperatures to investigate the effect of the temperature on the rate of degradation. The calculated rate constants indicated that the degradation rate of the CMC solutions decreased as the temperature increased. The degraded CMCs were characterized by gel permeation chromatography, and average molecular weights of ultrasonicated CMCs were compared in different reaction conditions.

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