Скачать или смотреть Eva Pasquier - Production of chitin nanofibers from insects and comparison with conventional sources

Laboratoire Génie des Procédés Papetiers (LGP2) – Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble, France
Today environmental concern has made us rethink our way of living and eating. Alternative protein sources are emerging and among them, insects are one of the most promising. Insect farming is a new industry and in order to maximize its profitability and environmental footprint, valorization of every by-products is a key. Chitin fibers present in the exoskeleton of insects have a great potential as starting material for innovative materials. But is the chitin from insects as good as the one derived from marine sources? In this study, production of chitin nanofibers extracted from fly larvae (Hermetia Illucens) and shrimp shells was carried out. The purified fibers showed similar chemical structures as displayed by FTIR and NMR analyses. After mechanical fibrillation, the suspensions exhibit the characteristic gel-like behavior of nanofibers suspensions. The morphologies of the nanofibers were similar, with an average height of 11 ± 6 nm and 9 ± 6 nm for the chitin nanofibers (ChNF) derived from fly and shrimp respectively. ChNF films were also produced with different drying methods and their mechanical properties were studied. It was demonstrated that the drying method had more influence than the chitin source on the final mechanical properties of the films. These results showed that the production of chitin nanofibers from insects is possible and that the nanofibers produced have similar properties as chitin nanofibers from conventional sources.

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