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Updated: Feb 12, 2026

Preparation of Expanded Chitin Foams and their Use in the Removal of Aqueous Copper
Published on: February 27, 2021
Base-free preparation of low molecular weight chitin from crab shell
Jie Zhang1, Mi Feng2, Xingmei Lu2
1Key Laboratory of Green Process Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Complex Systems, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhongguancun, Haidian District, Beijing, 100190, China; Beijing BW Techtextile Co., Ltd, Floor 11, Building 2, Block 26, Financial Street (Changan Center), Shijingshan District, Beijing, 100043, China.
Abstract:
Low molecular weight (LMW) chitin exhibits antimicrobial activity, and its preparation generally employs high molecular weight chitin as raw material. Here we use raw crab shell as material to isolate LMW-chitin. The raw crab shell was treated with hydrochloric acid under different conditions, and the demineralization and deproteinization of acid to the raw and demineralized crab shell were examined. Under conditions of 3-5 wt% acid, 110 °C, and 180-600 min, the obtained LMW-chitin owns 92% purity and 53-80 kDa molecular weight. The method provides feasible one-step base-free strategy to directly obtain LMW-chitin from raw crab shell, and could be potentially extended to other chitin sources.
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