A green protocol to extract chitin from crab shells using water soluble ionic liquids (ILs) is here reported. Compared to conventional multistep acid-base extraction methods, this one-pot procedure achieves pulping of recalcitrant crustacean waste shells by employing ammonium acetate, ammonium formate and hydroxylammonium acetate as water-soluble, low-cost and easy to prepare ILs. An extensive parametric analysis of the pulping process has been carried out with different ILs, different ratios, temperature and time. The optimized protocol provides a high-quality chitin comparable, if not better, to commercial chitin. The best results were obtained at 150 C-degrees with ammonium formate prepared in-situ from aqueous ammonia and formic acid: chitin was isolated in a 17 wt% yield (based on dried crab shells as starting biowaste), a degree of acetylation (DA) > 94 %, a crystallinity index of 39-46 %, a molecular weight up to 6.6 x 10(5) g/mol and a polydispersity of ca 2.0.

Green extraction of chitin from hard spider crab shells

Campalani, Carlotta;Bertuol, Ilaria;Bersani, Chiara;Calmanti, Roberto;Selva, Maurizio;Perosa, Alvise
2024-01-01

Abstract

A green protocol to extract chitin from crab shells using water soluble ionic liquids (ILs) is here reported. Compared to conventional multistep acid-base extraction methods, this one-pot procedure achieves pulping of recalcitrant crustacean waste shells by employing ammonium acetate, ammonium formate and hydroxylammonium acetate as water-soluble, low-cost and easy to prepare ILs. An extensive parametric analysis of the pulping process has been carried out with different ILs, different ratios, temperature and time. The optimized protocol provides a high-quality chitin comparable, if not better, to commercial chitin. The best results were obtained at 150 C-degrees with ammonium formate prepared in-situ from aqueous ammonia and formic acid: chitin was isolated in a 17 wt% yield (based on dried crab shells as starting biowaste), a degree of acetylation (DA) > 94 %, a crystallinity index of 39-46 %, a molecular weight up to 6.6 x 10(5) g/mol and a polydispersity of ca 2.0.
2024
345
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
1-s2.0-S0144861724007914-main.pdf

accesso aperto

Tipologia: Documento in Post-print
Licenza: Accesso libero (no vincoli)
Dimensione 1.76 MB
Formato Adobe PDF
1.76 MB Adobe PDF Visualizza/Apri

I documenti in ARCA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10278/5071184
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? 0
  • Scopus 0
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 0
social impact