A chitosan film was newly prepared from the liquid crystal solution. The unit cell parameters of crystal were determined: a=8.67 Å, b=10.24 Å (fiber axis), c=8.92 Å, and β=92.6°. These parameters accorded with those of the (1-3) crystal reported previously within an experimental error. In addition, the packing of molecular chains in a crystal lattice was studied based on the calculation of structure factors. The range of 80° to 85° for the value of φ, which was related to the packing of molecular chains in the a, c projection, was obtained. The proposed model of the crystal structure was similar to that of β-chitin as reported by Blackwell et al.
The crystal lattice might contain one water molecule per residue of glucosamine based on the comparison of the observed and calculated densities.