Resumo: Microesferas de quitosana podem ser empregadas na área de biomaterias, em processos biotecnológicos e como adsorventes. Neste trabalho, foi empregada a técnica de atomização e coagulação para produção dessas microesferas, que permitiu o controle dos parâmetros de operação e por conseqüência a obtenção de microesferas de tamanho e faixas de tamanho específicos. Após a sua obtenção, as microesferas foram modificadas quimicamente com objetivo de estudar as resistências térmica, mecânica e química. Para isso foram empregadas três rotas distintas: a-) reticulação com glutaraldeído; b-) reticulação com epicloridrina e c-) acetilação. As microesferas preparadas apresentaram distribuição de tamanho da ordem de 140 µm com desvio padrão de 11,9 µm. Após as modificações químicas, as microesferas apresentaram temperatura de degradação térmica em torno de 300 °C, aumento da estabilidade química à solução de HCl, e diminuição da resistência mecânica.Palavras-chave: Quitosana, microesferas, atomização, modificação química. Production and Characterization of Chemically Modified Chitosan MicrospheresAbstract: Chitosan microspheres can be used as biomaterial, in biotechnology processes and as adsorbents. This work is concerned with the production of chitosan microspheres using spraying and coagulation processes, which allows us to control the operating parameters and to produce chitosan microspheres of several ranges and sizes. The microspheres were modified chemically in order to study their thermal, mechanical and chemical resistance. The methods used were: 1) crosslinking with glutaraldehyde; 2) crosslinking with epichlorohydrin; 3) acetylation. The microspheres obtained presented mean particle size of 140 µm and standard deviation of 11.9 µm. The modified microspheres showed thermal degradation around 300 °C, an increase of chemical stability using HCl solution and a decrease of mechanical resistance.

Chitosan microspheres with a mean size of 140 ± 119 µm were produced by the spray and coagulation methods. The microspheres were chemically modified using the following routes: a) crosslinking with glutaraldehyde b) crosslinking with epychlorohydrin and c) acetylation. For investigation of their ability as adsorbents, the following standard proteins were chosen as adsorbates: bovine serum albumin - BSA (pI = 4.8 and MW = 66 kDa) and lysozyme (pI = 11 and MW = 14 kDa). The adsorption experiments were performed using a static method. The adsorption media and equilibrium concentration of adsorbates were varied in the ranges of pH 4-11 and 0.07-0.70 mg.ml-1, respectively. The maximum adsorption capacities (q m) and the constant of the Langmuir model (Ks) were shown to be dependent on charge interactions and on the kind of treatment performed on chitosan microspheres. The satisfactory fit of a kinetic model to the experimental data shows that the step that controls the adsorption kinetics is probably the initial adsorbate transport

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