Preparation of cellulose-chitosan blends under shear deformation in the presence of crosslinking agents

A mechanism of the formation of cellulose-chitosan blends in the presence o f phthalic anhydride, succinic anhydride, and diepoxide as crosslinking age nts was studied. It was established that the crosslinking agents react pred ominantly with the amino groups of chitosan to produce a network structure, and the cellulose macromolecules are located within the network and partia lly bound with this network by the crosslinks, It was shown that the format ion of the aforementioned structures results in the insolubility of cellulo se-chitosan compositions in acidic and alkaline aqueous media.