TY  - EJOU
AU  - Ramírez, Miguel Ángel 
AU  - González, Patricia 
AU  - Fagundo, Juan Reinerio 
AU  - Suarez, Margaret 
AU  - Melian, Clara 
AU  - Rodríguez, Tania 
AU  - Peniche, Carlos 

TI  - Chitin Preparation by Demineralizing Deproteinized Lobster Shells with CO2 and a Cationite
T2  - Journal of Renewable Materials

PY  - 2017
VL  - 5
IS  - 1
SN  - 2164-6341

AB  - 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.
KW  - Carbon dioxide
KW  -  chitin
KW  -  demineralization
KW  -  lobster shells

DO  - 10.7569/JRM.2016.634121