The present investigation provides a unique, simple, selective and efficient method for the electrochemical reduction of aromatic nitro groups into amines using chitosan-hydrogen iodide salt supported graphite electrode. 3:1 tetrabutyl ammonium chloride and acetic acid mixture was used as the medium for electrolytic process and a constant voltage of 5 V applied between the modified electrodes. The reaction was found to be selective and further reduction of amines was not observed. The purity of the products was checked with HPLC and characterized using spectroscopic tools. The electrochemical synthesis resulted in moderate to good yields of amino compounds which were higher than the reduction using conventional graphite electrodes. Quaternary ammonium chloride behaved as supporting electrolyte during synthesis and the reaction did not progress in the absence of acetic acid. The redox characteristic of the process was studied by cyclic voltammetry of the reaction mixture.

The processes involved to extract chitosan biopolymers from natural resources often employ hazardous chemicals and long processing time. This work provides a sustainable direct extraction method of chitosan from snail shells. Previous attempts using acetogenin in graviola extracts succeeded in the extraction of chitosan from marine shells. However, the slow reaction has prompted the addition of hydrogen bond acceptor solution into the graviola extract. Choline chloride is an excellent hydrogen bond acceptor mixed with acetogenin as hydrogen bond donor to form natural deep eutectic solvent (NADES) for the direct extraction of chitosan. Chitosan obtained from this method has a degree of deacetylation of 91% and a molecular weight of 481 kDa with fiber-like morphology. The direct extraction of chitosan from NADES consisting of choline chloride and acetogenin has proven to extract chitosan with comparable properties to commercial chitosan.

Many researchers are attracted to Chitosan based blends due to its properties and potential applications in various fields. The advanced development of Chitosan blends integrates the science and technology of blended materials. The present experimentation is reporting the preparation of Chitosan and Agar-Agar blends (CCA) by chemical mixing of these materials at different compositions. The thermal studies of the prepared blends were studied by differential scanning colorimeter (DSC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) tools. Thermal studies reveal that the lowest degradation temperatures of blends might be attributed to the partial miscibility of CAA blends at particular composition and miscibility due to single glass transition temperature (T_g) between Chitosan and Agar-agar. Bonding nature of sample blends were carried out by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) instrumentation. This study reveals the interaction between Chitosan and Agar-agar is partial miscibility. Morphological study reveals that a few aggregated particles, which suggest the partial miscibility of CAA blends. Homogeneity of blend compositions and specific intermolecular interactions of hydrogen bonding type is also observed.