Microwave-Synthesized Polysaccharide Copolymers 38 Marcin Lukasiewicz, Grzegorz Kowalski, and Anna Ptaszek Contents 1 Introduction ................................................................................. 1080 2 Radical Processes Under Microwave Condition .......................................... 1084 3 Graft Copolymerization .................................................................... 1084 4 Polysaccharides ............................................................................. 1088 5 Cellulose .................................................................................... 1100 6 Chitin and Chitosan ........................................................................ 1106 7 Conclusions ................................................................................. 1112 References ...................................................................................... 1113 Abstract Known since the end of the nineteenth century, microwave radiation (Zlotorzynski 1995) was used to carry out a chemical reaction for the first time in the 1960s, but in these experiments, irradiation was used for the production of electric arc discharge only in which some organic transformation has been carried out (Streitwieser and Ward 1962). The very first “microwave synthesis,” in full sense of the word, was performed in the 1980s of the last century, when Gedye et al. (1986) conducted the microwave-assisted hydrolysis of amides in a substantially shorter time than the corresponding reaction at con- ventional conditions. A few years later, in 1992, Mingos showed the possibility of heating liquid beyond their boiling points at microwave conditions M. Lukasiewicz (*) Department of Carbohydrate Technology, Faculty of Food Technology, Agriculture University in Krakow, Krako ´w, Poland e-mail: rrlukasi@cyf-kr.edu.pl G. Kowalski • A. Ptaszek Department of Engineering and Machinery in Food Industry, Faculty of Food Technology, Agriculture University in Krakow, Krako ´w, Poland e-mail: g.kowalski@ur.krakow.pl; a.ptaszek@ur.krakow.pl # Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 K.G. Ramawat, J.-M. Me ´rillon (eds.), Polysaccharides, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-16298-0_18 1079