Abstract
Chitin and chemically modified chitins were spun to the fibers and their tensile properties were investigated together with the accessibility toward lysozyme. The fiber of partially deacetylated chitin showed the best properties in the tensile strength especially in a wet state. On the other hand, the accessibility of the fibers toward lysozyme was shown to be enhanced by the introduction of hydrophilic alkyl group such as carboxymethyl (CM) or dihydroxypropyl (DHP) group to the chitin molecule although the tensile strength in a wet state decreased. It was also found that the accessibility of the chitin derivatives toward lysozyme was rather enhanced even by the alkylation with bulky alkyl group, as far as the modification of hydroxyl group was made at C6 of N-acetyl-glucosamine residue. The microscopic observations suggested that the enhancement of the accessibility was mainly due to the increase of the hydrophilicity of the fiber surface.
