Abstract
The Ph-D work presented in this manuscript aims to develop a new process for elaborate chitosan membranes for treatment of acidic media containing metal ions. Soluble In acidic aqueous media, gelation occurs when the pH becomes basic, allowing elaboration of membrane without the use of organic solvents unlike classical synthetic polymers. Moreover, this Ph-D work has focused on an original process enzymatic gelation which the in-situ gelation of chitosan solution allows a controlled structuration of the membrane unlike conventional processes which leads to a front gelling.A study of gelation time as a function of the elaboration parameters (temperature and urea concentration) highlighted that only the temperature is a main parameter on gelation time since the urea concentration is not limiting. A model was developed to describe the chitosan enzymatic gelation in order to understand mechanisms of reaction kinetics and transfers during the gel formation.Chitosan membranes have been prepared by enzymatic process, the porosity of such membranes have been generated with a blowing agent (PEG 6000) and an acetylation of chitosan having yielded insoluble membranes in acid medium. The resulting membranes were characterized by their morphology and functional properties (filtration, sorption of Cu (II) as model metal element).