Polysaccharides know a renewed interest for the production of materials owing to their renewable character. Due to their natural variability, it is important to set up methods for their advanced characterization. Chitosan, extracted from crab and shrimp shell, is also biocompatible and biodegradable, giving it potential in biomedical applications such as membranes for cell culture. However, this application is limited due to an observed heterogeneity of cell attachment on the membranes. Chitosan’s analysis in solution, hampered by solubility issues, has shown it to be heterogeneous in terms of copolymer composition. The nature of the spatial heterogeneity in the chitosan films was investigated by various two-dimensional solid-state NMR methods. Cellulose is the most abundant polysaccharide on earth. Various processes are researched to produced materials from agricultural waste, including dissolution and regeneration, or thermocompression. The semi-crystallinity of the materials formed is crucial for their applications properties. It was characterized by XRD and solid-state NMR. Starch is a major component of our diet. Its digestibility is crucial for the ‘healthiness’ of foods, however its molecular origin still eludes us. Various characteristics are assessed in starch samples grown at different temperatures or selected for their different digestibilities: branching by 1H solution-state NMR, molecular mobility by 1H solid-state NMR, short-range order by 13C solid-state NMR, crystallinity by XRD, and granular structure by SAXS.

Insights into the heterogeneity of polysaccharides with solid-state NMR spectroscopy

255th National Meeting (2018)

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