What is it about?

The aim of this review is to address the latest developments made with chitosan for environmental applications. It particularly emphasizes chitosan’s use for mitigating heavy metals and organic contaminants in soil and wastewater. It also covers chitosan’s general properties, its limitations and prospects for chemically modifying it in ways that enhance its performance and utility for environmental

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Why is it important?

Seafood processing waste is a potentially rich source of several useful products including chitin. Chitin is economical and is the second most abundant bio-waste material after cellulose. Chitosan is a by-product of the alkaline deacetylation of chitin, wherein the amide group in chitin is hydrolyzed to a primary amine group (R–NH2) to produce chitosan. Chitosan’s lack of toxicity, coupled with its rapid degradability, make it suitable for several environmental and agricultural uses.

Perspectives

The environmental applications of chitosan or its derivatives have not previously been reviewed in detail. Renewable chitinous waste materials derived from plants or animals may be a cost-effective approach to remediate wastewater. Crab shells have effectively been used to decontaminate metals in wastewater. Fungus mycelium biomass has recently emerged as a promising new source of chitinous material to potentially remediate contaminated wastewater. The commercial value of employing chitosan for environmental applications may be improved considerably by modifying its structure and chemical functionalization. For example, applying a crosslinking process to chitosan can enhance both its resistance to acidic solubilization and to microbial degradation.

Dr Soon Kong Yong
Universiti Teknologi MARA

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: Environmental Applications of Chitosan and Its Derivatives, October 2014, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-10479-9_1.
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