Preparation of chitin nanowhiskers to reinforce alginate beads

Abstract

Chitin nanowhiskers (CNW) is a nano-crystalline biopolymer that gained much interest for its reinforcement effect. CNW possess several unique and useful properties including biodegradable and non-toxic. Therefore, this afford exclusivity of CNW in biomedical applications. The aim of this study is to investigate the reinforcement effect of CNW on alginate beads. CNW was prepared from commercial chitin of shrimp shells through acid hydrolysis. Different concentration of CNW were incorporated in the alginate beads and their swelling behaviour were observed. The swelling of CNW/alginate beads decreases as the concentration of CNW embodied in the beads increases. Alginate beads incorporated with 3% CNW showed least swelling. A strength test conducted on CNW/alginate beads indicated that the incorporation of CNW indeed increases the strength as the amount of burst alginate beads were reduced under continuous shaking condition as the concentration of CNW increases. CNW of 3% showed the most minimum swelling which is associated with the probability of the alginate beads to burst. A slow protein release test was also carried out using BSA to determine whether the crosslinking of alginate beads and CNW will lower the protein release. The protein concentration was determined by Biuret Method in which the absorption of protein was measured using UV Spectrometer at 549 nm. The sole alginate beads shows a higher protein release (72.67%) compared to CNW/alginate beads (70.26%). Both chitin and CNW were characterized using Attenuated Total Reflectance Infrared Spectroscopy (ATR-IR).