Structural alterations, pore generation, and deacetylation of α- and β-chitin submitted to steam explosion

The purpose of this study was to use an environmentally friendly steam explosion method to achieve α- and β-chitin structural alterations, pore generation, and deacetylation, enhancing the degree of deacetylation (DD) in chitin and extending its applications. The samples of α- and β-chitin possessing various moisture contents that were exploded at 9 kg/cm2 exhibited higher DDs, lower densities, lower crystallinity and more porous structures compared to unexploded chitin. After explosion, β-chitin exhibited a larger expansion ratio, lower crystallinity and contained a larger proportion of small-sized particles compared to α-chitin. The highest DD values of exploded α- and β-chitin with 75% moisture content were 42.9% and 43.7%, respectively. The exploded chitin samples with lower moisture content exhibited lower DDs, densities, crystallinity indices, smaller particle sizes, and higher expansion ratios than the chitin samples with higher moisture content. The chitin samples with lower moisture content also contained larger and more numerous pores.