A study on Chitosan formulation to prepare microsphere via ultrasonicator probe

Chitosan has been selected as the raw material for this study due to its versatility and the myriad of its application in the industry. Chitosan is a natural polymer that been derived from chitin through acetylation process. A wide range of sizes of the beads can be prepared depending on the method of fabrications. The range includes the macro, micro and also nano size beads. Different size contribute to different applications such as for waste water treatment with beads sizing from 1 to 3 mm and in drug delivery having a range of beads sizing from 200 to 400 μm. The size of the chitosan beads can be manipulated by changing the parameter of the processing method which in this study via sonication probe. The parameter includes the concentration of the chitosan solution, concentration of surfactant, sonication time, stirring rate and the amplitude of sonication. The chitosan beads were produced via the combination of emulsion crosslinking technique and sonication technique. The addition of the sonication method was to reduce the size of the emulsion produced from the emulsion crosslinking technique. The emulsion produced prior then been subjected to the sonicator before being crosslinked with glutaraldehyde to harden the chitosan beads. In this study, the beads were prepared to study the effect of the processing parameter on the average diameter, dave of the chitosan beads either the physical or the chemical parameter. The dave of the beads reduces with the increasing of the parameters such as the stirring rate, amplitude, time of sonication, chitosan concentration and surfactant concentration. In the conclusion, the best parameter for the formation of the chitosan beads with the smallest are at 600 rpm of stir rate, 80% amplitude and 6 minutes of sonication.