Miracle Fibre Chitin

INTRODUCTION

Chitin the miracle fibre is well recognized asbiopolymer / biomaterial with inbuilt biological properties to serve physicochemicalfunctions. Basically Chitosan derived from chitin which is linier biopolymer aderivative of Chitin. Now chitin is found from shells of crustaceans, theskeleton exhausted by sea insects and cell wall of fungi. See the fig mentionedbelow which explains the structure of chitosan from the process ofdeacetylation of Chitin.

(Fig. 1)

Usage ofChitin

Now a days Tissue Engineering is vastly growing subject inthe medical field. This technique basically helps for regeneration of damagedtissues. The Chitin support the basic biological environment and patient havequick heal. Due to enhance with biocompatibility Chitin fibres are used as proteins delivery vehicle. Similarly it is also useful for grafting skin, physical adsorptionand for protein modification process. In tissue engineering it was proved that cell could enrich and improve its performance after modification. We hope that innear future it will open door for regeneration of functional tissue. Duringtherapy reaction of chitin fibre vary due to temperature, MLR and blendingratio of CDC/Chitosan.

Application

Chitin fibres could be fine up to 20mg/100mtr and it isuseful to blend with wood-pulp. Many sanitary producer blend Chitin fibres withfibrous structure to enhance hygiene property in it. Fineness of Chitin deliverssoftness and if producer use thick fibre with more than 20 mg/ 100mtr, it couldhelp in term of strength also. Generally Chitin fibres are used with blend likecellulose derivatives and other protein fibres to impart tensile strength alongwith softness. Chitin fibres could blend with elastomeric polymers, olefinpolymers and its derivatives, alcohol hydroxyl polymers, starch polymers andwith synthetic fibres like polyester and nylon too. This era is of Nonwoven andChitin fibres found their compatibility with various nonwoven process also like spun bound, melt blown and with needle punch production process. We arefamiliar with many products which could contain chitin fibres like paperfabrics, absorbent pads, hygiene products, and tissues etc.

All the above mentioned products are highly in trend and usage which is the best for Chitin producer. The trade data forChitin for the year 2007 is mentioned below.

Development

Plasma coating and surface restructuring technique are theuseful to graft desire surface on the chitin fibres and work is on progress to found innovative chitin fibre for specific desire end use only. The near future willsee few mind blowing uses of Chitin fibres if scientists successfully changesurface properties of Chitin fibres like wet ability, oxygen content andresponse to contingent.

References:

• UN com-trade
• Mayumi Kawabe, Mitsuru Futakuchi, Seiko Tamano, Tomoyuki Shirai and Masao Hirose; Surface Structural Investigation of Starch-Based Bio-materials, Willey fibre science journals Iva Pashkuleva, Helena S. Azevedo, Rui L. Reis, Date Of Issue: 10.1002/mabi.200700076
• Improved biomaterials for tissue engineering applications: surface modification of polymers Vasita R, Shanmugam I K, Katt DS. Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology - Kanpur, India.