The Effect of Chitin Alkaline Deacetylation at Different Condition on Particle Properties

The abundant biopolymer chitin, found mainly in crustaceous exoskeleton, such as crab, shrimp and lobster, can be deacetylated to yield chitosan. This slightly different biopolymer is more reactive than chitin, being more effective for many applications in fields as environmental remediation, biomedical sciences, catalysis and so on. The main process for chitin deacetylation used sodium hydroxide solutions at high temperatures for long times to obtain chitosan with high deacetylation degree (DD). The present study has evaluated the effect from room temperature (RT), 363 and 393 K, hydroxide concentration (2.0 or 10.0 mol dm³) and time (3 and 24 h) on shrimp chitin deacetylation. Similar amounts of chitin and sodium hydroxide solutions were stirred jointly and the resultant solids were filtered and washed until pH 7, than dried at environmental conditions. The obtained samples were characterized by several techniques, such as elemental analysis, X-rays diffraction (XRD), laser scattering and absorption spectroscopy at infrared region with Fourier transform (FTIR), which was used for DD calculation. The results showed that all chitin-chitosan samples did not reach DD > 90%, as observed for some good commercial chitosans. The highest DD was obtained by the sample prepared at more drastic conditions, as expected, however the higher sodium hydroxide concentration leads to decrease of molecular mass when associated with high temperatures. The crystallinity was influenced mostly by reaction time, which change the positions and intensities as indicated by XRD main peaks, located at 9.3 and 19.4° 2Θ. Particle sizes were strongly diminished by treatment at 393 K, what imply also some increase at the pressure, favoring chain dissociation reactions. This work mapped several properties for chitin-chitosan samples achieved by the described conditions.