Natural fiber exoskeletons of insects and arthropods. In shells and exoskeletons, the chitin fibers contribute to their hierarchical structure. In nature, pure chitin (100% acetylation) does not exist. It instead exists as a copolymer with chitin's deacetylated derivative, chitosan. When the acetylized composition of the copolymer is over 50% acetylated it is chitin. This copolymer of chitin and chitosan is a random or block copolymer. Chitosan is a deacetylated derivative of chitin. When the acetylized composition of the copolymer is below 50% it is chitosan. Chitosan is a semicrystalline “polymer of β-(1-4)-2-amino-2-deoxy-D-glucose”. One difference between chitin and chitosan is that chitosan is
Polymer physics 50 nm, it behaves like a flexible chain. Reptation is the thermal motion of very long linear, "entangled" macromolecules in polymer melts or concentrated polymer solutions. Derived from the word reptile, reptation suggests the movement of entangled polymer chains as being analogous to snakes slithering through one another. Pierre-Gilles de Gennes introduced (and named) the concept of reptation into polymer physics in 1971 to explain the dependence of the mobility of a macromolecule on its length. Reptation is used as a mechanism to explain viscous flow in an amorphous polymer. Sir Sam Edwards and Masao Doi later refined reptation theory.