Natural porous and nano fiber chitin structure from Gammarus argaeus (Gammaridae Crustacea)

Chitin and its derivatives are commercially important biopolymers due to their applications in medicine, agriculture, water treatment, cosmetics and various biotechnological areas. Since chitin and its derivatives exhibit different chemical and physical properties depending on the source and isolation method, there is a growing demand for new chitin sources other than crab and shrimp worldwide. In this study Gammarus, a Crustacea, was investigated as a novel chitin source. Gammarus, which belongs to the family Gammaridae Crustacea, lives in the bottom of aquatic ecosystems. More than 200 species are known worldwide. One of these species, G. argaeus was investigated for chitin isolation. The alpha chitin isolated from G. argaeus was characterized by using analysis techniques such as infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). All these analyses confirmed that the isolated chitin from G. argaeus was in the alpha form. Furthermore, we described that dry weight of this species contained 11-12 % chitin. SEM examination of the isolated α-chitin revealed that it was composed of nanofibrils (15-55 nm) and pores (about 150 nm).