Marine waste to a functional biomaterial: Green facile synthesis of modified-β-chitin from Uroteuthis duvauceli pens (gladius).

Chitin is the secondmost abundant biomass on earth but exploited the least. In this study, wastes fromUroteuthis duvauceliwas utilized to extract 38.79 +/- 1.38% dryweight of beta-chitin using a newcombination of decolorization, demineralization, and deproteinization processes. beta-chitin was then derivatized with acrylamide in an efficient and green aqueous 8 wt% NaOH/4 wt% urea solvent via one-pot etherification. The success of carbamoylethyl ether of chitin and carboxyethyl chitin synthesis was confirmed by FTIR, H-1 NMR, C-13 NMR, XRD, SEM, TGA, and DSC. The synthesized acrylamide-modified beta-chitin derivatives were shown to exhibit water solubility and lower decomposition temperatures, which are primarily due to the disruption of the crystalline structure of beta-chitin upon its dissolution and modification. In this era of climate change, this desirable strategy of harnessing beta-chitin from wastes and converting it to value-added products is highly sought tomitigate the continuing ecological and economical imbalance brought about bymarine-foodwastes. To the best of our knowledge, this novel contribution is the first to report biorefinery of squid pens fromthis particular species and functionalizing itwith acrylamide in a facile manner, thus, offering greater potential for future development to biocompatible chitinbased biomaterials intended for industrial, pharmaceutical and biomedical applications. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.