Open Access

ARTICLE

Chitin Preparation by Demineralizing Deproteinized Lobster Shells with CO2 and a Cationite

Miguel Ángel Ramírez¹, Patricia González², Juan Reinerio Fagundo², Margaret Suarez³, Clara Melian³, Tania Rodríguez¹, Carlos Peniche^4*
1 Los Palacios Unit (UCTB), National Institute of Agricultural Sciences (INCA), Mayabeque, Cuba
2 Faculty of Chemistry, University of Havana, Havana, Cuba
3 Faculty of Radiochemistry, Higher Institute of Technologies and Applied Sciences (InSTEC), Havana, Cuba
4 Biomaterials Center (BIOMAT), University of Havana, Havana, Cuba
*Corresponding author:

Journal of Renewable Materials 2017, 5(1), 30-37. https://doi.org/10.7569/JRM.2016.634121

Abstract

The inorganic components of crustacean shells are usually removed using HCl solutions. This provokes undesirable modifications in the extracted chitin. In the present procedure, deproteinized lobster shells were demineralized with CO2 and a cationic resin (cationite). The resulting chitin (CHI-CO2) is compared in terms of degree of acetylation (DA), crystallinity index (CrI) and thermal stability with chitins obtained by demineralization procedures with HCl (CHI-HCl) and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (CHI-EDTA). The ash content of chitins demineralized with CO2 was similar to that of chitins prepared using HCl or EDTA. However, the resultant DA and CrI of CHI-HCl and CHI-EDTA were lower than those of CHI-CO2. Thermal stability of CHI-CO2 was also higher, with maximum decomposition velocity at 360 °C, above those of CHIEDTA (348 °C) and CHI-HCl (332 °C). This indicates that the use of CO2 and a cationite for demineralizing lobster shells is a promising alternative to conventional HCl and EDTA treatments for obtaining chitin.

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Keywords

Carbon dioxide, chitin, demineralization, lobster shells

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