A perspective on 30 years research on chitin and chitosan

Chitosan is a complex linear amino co-polymer which, depending on a great variety of parameters, exhibits a more or less amphiphilic structure. This makes this polysaccharide one of the most versatile macromolecules for which it is sometimes difficult to control all the factors responsible of its properties. The purpose of this paper is to present a review of about 30 years of research in our team in the context of a precise scientific strategy. Thus, these years were devoted to improve the production of chitin and chitosan, produce series of co-polymers and co-oligomers, improve their characterizations, reveal a general law of behavior, generate nano-particles, physical gels and derived forms, show a continuum of structure from solutions to other physical states, propose the concept of materials decoys of biological media, etc. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.