ISOLATION AND EXTRACTION OF CHITOSAN FROM SHRIMP SHELLS

Chitosan is one of the versatile bio-polymer to be produced today. There has been increased inclination towards eco-friendly, biocompatible and biodegradable polymers, as most of the prevalent synthetic polymers lack these properties. Hence, the advantages of chitosan as a textile material were realized. In this paper chitosan has been extracted from shrimp shell waste by different methods. Each method included 3 distinct steps of demineralization, deproteinization and deacetylation of the shells. The quality of chitosan produced depends on the conditions and parameters maintained during the chemical extraction process. The result of extraction showed that 4% HCl and 4% NaOH were suitable concentrations for dimeralization and deproteinization respectively at ambient temperature (28±20C). Chitosan with a higher degree of deacetylation (70%) was obtained with 60% NaOH when used during deacetylation for 24 hour at 600C. The formation of chitosan was characterized by elemental analysis and FTIR measurements.