C

PAN Polyacrylonitrile
Chitin as a Resource for Eco-
PCL Poly-Ɛ-caprolactone
Friendly Bioplastics
PHBV Polyhydroxybutyrate-co-valerate
PLA Polylactic acid
Julia L. Shamshina1, Paula Berton2 and
PPG Polypropylene glycol
Robin D. Rogers3
1
Mari Signum, Mid-Atlantic, LLC, Rockville,
MD, USA
2
Chemical and Petroleum Engineering
Introduction
Department, University of Calgary,
Bioplastics
Calgary, Canada
3 The definition of “bioplastic(s)” has originated
525 Solutions, Inc., Tuscaloosa, AL, USA
from the European Association of Producers, Sup-
pliers and Consumers of Bioplastics and Other
Abbreviations
Biodegradable Materials [1]. This Association
defines bioplastics as a “material that is of biolog-
ASTM American Society for Testing and
ical origin and/or is biodegradable” [1]. Such a
Materials
definition is in fact tricky – use of an “and/or”
CAGR Compound Annual Growth Rate
grammatical conjunction indicates that not both
DNA Deoxyribonucleic Acid
biological origin and biodegradability are require-
EDPMD Environmentally Degradable
ments for bioplastics, but either one is satisfactory
Polymeric Materials and Plastics
enough. As a result, even though one expects from
EN European Standard
the name that bioplastics are safer than synthetic
FTC Federal Trade Commission
plastics, this is not always the case. In fact,
IUPAC International Union of Pure and
top bioplastics include 1,4-butanediol [2, 3]; poly-
Applied Chemistry
ethylene terephthalate (PET) [2, 4]; buta-1,3-
N-GAG N-Glycosaminoglycans
diene [2, 4]; polyethylene furanoate [2, 5]; poly-
RNA Ribonucleic acid
lactic acid [2, 6–8]; polyhydroxyalkanoate [2, 9];
DA Degree of Acetylation
polybutylene terephthalate [2]; polybutylene suc-
DP Degree of Polymerization
cinate [8]; plastic from 1,3-propanediol [8]; bio-
MW Molecular Weight
polyurethanes [8]; polytrimethylene terephthalate
VOCs Volatile Organic Solvents
[8]; and bio-polyamides [8]. Chemically speak-
PET Polyethylene terephthalate
ing, these plastics are structurally exactly the same
PVDF Poly(vinylidene fluoride)
as synthetic plastics, except for the fact that the

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019

S. Zhang (ed.), Encyclopedia of Ionic Liquids,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6739-6_43-1
2 Chitin as a Resource for Eco-Friendly Bioplastics
raw materials for the synthesis of those have been
derived from biomass and not from oil.
This is both the blessing and the curse; these
so-called bioplastics do diminish our dependence
on oil, but in terms of the ecological plastic catas-
trophe they are by no means safer than their syn-
thetic analogs. The International Union of Pure
and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) thus disap-
proves of the use of the term bioplastics and
considers it misleading because the general public
without proper chemical education assumes that a
material with the prefix “bio-” is ultimately eco-
logically safe. Instead, IUPAC advises using the
definition “polymers of biological origin” for
these plastic types [10], since they are not any
better in degradation rates than conventional syn-
thetic plastics.
More to the Story: Biodegradation
The term “biodegradable” has also been mis-
treated. According to Federal Trade Commission
(FTC) Green Guides [11], the term “biodegrad-
able” should be applied to products, “which will
completely break down and return to nature (i.e.,
decompose into elements found in nature) within
a reasonably short period of time after customary
disposal.” This term, however, does not specify a
time of degradation nor does it define the degra-
dation conditions. Thus, time might vary from
months to tens of years under certain environmen-
tal settings (e.g., require sunlight for
photodegradation).
The correct term for defining environmentally
friendly products is “compostable.” “Compost-
able” materials require “scientific evidence that
the materials break down, or become part of,
usable compost in a safe and timely manner”
[12]. As a result, because of misuse in marketing
and advertising, the State of California barred the
use of the terms “biodegradable,” “degradable,”
or “decomposable,” starting in 2013 [13]. More-
over, in order to use the term “Compostable” on a
company’s website and in product labeling, a
third-party certification must be conducted in
accordance to US Standard ASTM D6400
(or European standard EN 13432) [13]. This
requires that biodegradable/compostable products
completely decompose in a composting setting in
a specified timeframe, with formation of harmless
products.
What Is the Plastic Catastrophe?
There is no need to talk here about the plastic
catastrophe – there is abundant information out
there and it is hard to keep up with every new
academic article, TV show, or broadcast on why
synthetic plastics require replacement. In a single
year (2015), total plastic production constituted
448 mln tons [14], with about 1/3 just for packag-
ing meant to be wasted within minutes after pur-
chase. Thus, the now well-established production
of “bioplastic” using a biorefinery model, in
which biomass is converted into commodity
chemicals for high-volume global markets to pro-
duce the same deep-rooted plastic types, but much
smaller number of high-value products, suffers
when one considers protecting the environment.
This model can eventually replace the use of
petroleum with a renewable and carbon neutral
resource, biomass, but it otherwise leaves the cur-
rent global “plastic catastrophe” unsolved.
Realizing the problem, many industries, com-
panies, and academics work on a number of pro-
jects with the aim to urge an international
movement towards decreasing plastic production
and keeping plastic out of the environment (see
for example [15]). The movement has spread
around the globe albeit slowly; Montreal
(Quebec, Canada) banned single use of plastic
bags in 2018, following Los Angeles’ 2014- ini-
tiative prohibiting usage of plastic at checkout
counters. Just recently, Seattle initiated a ban on
plastic straws and utensils that went into effect
July 1, 2018 [16].
Recognizing that paradigms take generations
to shift, many institutions initiated an effective
chemistry curriculum which is now designed
around Societal needs, with missions of the insti-
tutions not only to educate students on the current
state of our planet, but also provide them with
tools to cope with the problems. Beyond Benign
Green Chemistry Fellows program [17] was initi-
ated for various age groups, from K-12 through
higher educational, in order “to make green chem-
istry an integral part of chemistry education.”
Colby College, participating in this program,
Chitin as a Resource for Eco-Friendly Bioplastics
educates their students on plastics and biodegra-
dation, and teaches that plastic objects could alter-
natively be created from environmentally benign
polymers such as chitin and chitosan, obtained
from lobster, shrimp, or crab. They even devel-
oped durable plastic toys for kids to take
home [18].
This legacy of World War II when scarcity and
cost of raw materials during the war led to inten-
sified efforts of many industrial giants to find
synthetic alternatives to natural polymers, led to
an enormous surge in plastic manufacture. The
main concern today is that plastics need to be
substituted with something – and this “some-
thing” needs to have economy of scale, consis-
tency of supply, and be suitable for preparation of
goods currently made of synthetic plastics.
Biopolymers to Save the World?
Use of conventional plastics that create serious
environmental problems requires that Society
seek alternative compostable materials, and bio-
polymers might be the answer. Biopolymers are
polymers produced by living organisms (i.e., are
“of natural origin”) and include polysaccharides,
nucleic acids (RNA and DNA), polypeptides,
etc. [19].
The reason that most of plastics are still of
synthetic origin is that biopolymeric alternatives
have not been commercially available at scale and
that large-scale commercialization of some is lim-
ited by significantly higher price comparing to
old-fashioned petroleum-based plastics. How-
ever, when production scaled up, the polymer
cost should significantly drop.
There are still a couple questions which remain
on how much the price of biopolymers will
decrease and whether it will be competitive with
existing petroleum-based plastics. The second
question that remains is that biopolymer-produced
materials have not yet met many performance
expectations (e.g., moisture sensitivity, insuffi-
cient strength or even fragility, and low elasticity).
Major obstacles (high cost of production, price
competitiveness, and limited functionality) must
be considered when establishing new markets.
Indeed, the global market for biodegradable poly-
mers reached 484.7 kilotons in 2017 and is
3
expected to grow to 984.8 kilotons by 2022, at a
compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.2%
for the period of 2017–2022 [20]. The market is
expected to grow because of the high demand in a
broad range of high-value applications. Mostly
the market growth is dominated by the medical
application segment of biodegradable polymers
which is anticipated to experience the highest
growth rate among all the biodegradable polymers
applications in coming years.
Looking to the Future: Chitin
Biomaterials
Within polysaccharides, cellulose and chitin are
the first and second most abundant biopolymers
[21, 22], sourced from lignocellulosic plants
(cellulose) and exoskeletons of shellfish, insects,
or cell wall of fungi (chitin). Chemically, cellulose
is a linear polymer made of repeated D-glycose
units, while chitin is made of repeated 2-(ace-
tylamino)-2-deoxy-D-glucose units; in both poly-
mers, the units are connected by b-(1!4) linkages
(Fig. 1). Scientific studies confirming biodegrad-
ability of both polymers were conducted to con-
firm that the biopolymers disintegrate during a
composting process. These studies of biodegrad-
ability and compostability of cellulose-based
materials showed their biodegradability according
to the European standard EN 13432 requirements
[23]. Similarly, chitin also belongs to the list of
Environmentally Degradable Polymeric Materials
and Plastics (EDPMD list) [24].
Yet, commercialization of chitin-based tech-
nologies is overlooked in favor of its deacetylated
derivative, chitosan. The main reason for this is
the insolubility of chitin in “traditional” volatile
organic solvents. Complex solvent systems
(i.e., N,N-dimethylacetamide/lithium chloride
(DMAc/LiCl) [25, 26], 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol
[27], NaOH-urea [28, 29] are typically used for
the preparation of chitin materials. Thus, even
though the global chitin market was worth $803
mln in 2016, rose to $893 mln in 2017, and is
predicted to triple to $2,941 mln by 2027 [30], not
many technologies are currently on the market;
however, there are many for chitosan. The lack of
4 Chitin as a Resource for Eco-Friendly Bioplastics
Chitin as a Resource for Eco-Friendly Bioplastics, Fig. 1 Structure of chitin (left) and chitosan (right)
chitin supply and difficulties associated with its
solubility have prevented its commercial develop-
ment [31]. Nonetheless, advancements in the chi-
tin field are significant, especially for medical
applications which constitute the highest growing
market segment for chitin.
Chitin is biocompatible and can serve as a
matrix for 3D tissue growth [32] due to the
structural similarity between chitin and
N-glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) which are respon-
sible for protein regulation and binding [33, 34].
Chitin is a healing accelerator [35], promotes
rapid dermal regeneration [36], and can be used
for producing different biomaterials, including
sutures, wound healing gauges, drug delivery
vehicles, and scaffolds (Table 1) [37, 38].
Commercial Deployment
As mentioned above, the chitin and chitosan mar-
ket is expanding at a fast pace and forecasted to
triple to $2941 mln by 2027. This increase is,
however, mostly attributed to development of
technologies using the well-known chemically
deacetylated chitin derivative, chitosan. At the
same time, properties of chitosan depend on a
great number of factors, such as its molecular
weight (MW), degree of deacetylation, pattern of
deacetylation, etc., and it is difficult to control
all the factors responsible for its properties
[48]. Chitin, on the other hand, consists solely of
N-acetylglucosamine units and is a strong poly-
mer that requires no chemical modification; in
addition, the surface of chitin materials can be
chemically functionalized when necessary. As a
biomaterial, chitin can be used “as is” or com-
bined with other polymers (e.g., alginate, PLA) or
molecular additives (e.g., drugs, polymers, and
inorganics), as well as, with cells or other mate-
rials of biological origin with resultant synergistic
action.
At the same time, chitin has been shown to be
superior to known materials in multiple examples
[50, 51]. The initial assessments of bio-related
chitin properties in order to provide a useful sci-
entific basis for clinical applications: biocompati-
bility, cytotoxicity, intracutaneous reactivity,
wound healing efficacy, histological evaluation
of the wounds treated with chitin dressings, and
antibacterial activity. However, “side-by-side”
comparison studies with chitosan have not been
conducted.
Part of the reason for the use of chitosan in
place of chitin is that there are no chitin producing
plants in North America, and thus, there is no raw
supply of this polymer with consistent properties
at scale. Polymers coming from chemically and
energy intensive pulping processes, conducted
outside of the USA, provide the product with
unsatisfactory characteristics (such as low MW
and unknown degree of acetylation) and these
products differ in properties depending on sup-
plier and/or manufacturing process. It would be
unreasonable to start a business based on a raw
materials supply with inconsistent properties.
The second reason is that companies utilizing
chitin prefer to utilize it in its soluble form,
chitosan, rather than follow academic advances
on processing nonderivatized chitin.
This said, there are only a few examples of
chitin use on a commercial scale. There are few
Chitin as a Resource for Eco-Friendly Bioplastics 5

Chitin as a Resource for Eco-Friendly Bioplastics, Table 1 Emerging chitin-based medical applications
Type Architecture Application/Reference
Surgical sutures Fibers Chitin suture is typically absorbed in about
3–4 months in muscles, with no tissue reaction
observed [39]. Satisfactory biocompatibility
was observed and no acute toxicity,
pyrogenicity, or mutagenicity was found
Wound care/ Woven and non-woven bandages, foam Chitin promotes rapid dermal regeneration,
bleeding control dressings, hydrocolloid dressings (hydrogels, accelerating wound healing process [36], and is
both 2D and 3D), dried films a hemostatic agent [40]
Cell seeding/ Porous chitin matrixes (e.g., aerogels and Mouse and human fibroblast cell cultures
tissue beads) exposed to a porous chitin matrix were found to
engineering be growing and proliferating [41, 42],
applications indicating the feasibility of using these
architectures as cell transplants in tissue
regeneration
Orthopedic and Chitin composites with minerals such as In orthopedics, chitin can be used as an agent to
periodontics hydroxyapatite heal bones. Composites based on
Dental chitin–minerals (such as hydroxyapatites) have
scaffolding potential to be used as hard tissue substitute
materials [41, 43]. Chitin also can be used in
dental tissue engineering applications, and is a
possible temporary scaffolding/bone substitute
while pending resorption of the implant
Implant surface Coatings (e.g., layer-by-layer (LBL) methods) Chitin is able to enhance bone growth and
modifier achieve osseointegration when implanted in
osseous sites [44]. Chitin used together with
calcium phosphate on titanium (Ti6Al4V)
implants improved biocompatibility with no
observed adverse effects
Drug-delivery Beads, loaded hydrogels, and aerogels Chitin has been used as a carrier for various
active pharmaceutical ingredients
[45, 46]
Medical device Dried chitin films A nanowhiskers pre-concentrate can be
packaging compounded directly into polymers (e.g., PLA).
Specific target benefits are moisture and oxygen
barrier improvements
[47]

commercial chitin-based biomedical materials The process of chitin extraction based on

such as a nasal packing material Beschitin F [51]
and a nonwoven fabric dressing Beschitin W
[52]. A composite nonwoven fabric of polyester
and chitin, Chitipack P [53], focuses on the appli-
cation of chitin nanofibers for the manufacture of
films and rigid packaging for the food and medical
industry. These chitin/chitosan dressings are used
for wound and burn treatments and have shown
superior performance in speed of healing and scar
minimization. Results have also been demon-
strated in clinical trials showing good biocompat-
ibility and efficacy [54].
microwave-assisted extraction of chitin from
crustacean biomass with the help of the ionic
liquid (IL) 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate
([C2mim][OAc]) [55] is currently under commer-
cialization [56]. The scaled-up process is based on
the ability of certain ILs to dissolve biopolymers
and provides a reliable and inexpensive method
for chitin isolation (subject to successful solvent
recovery). The method was developed and scaled
to a 20L pilot stage in 2015 [49].
When fully implemented, “economy of scale”
will decrease the cost of raw chitin material and
6 Chitin as a Resource for Eco-Friendly Bioplastics
the large and consistent supply of chitin will allow
businesses to develop around this unique
opportunity.
References
1. European Bioplastics (2018) What are bioplastics?
https://www.european-bioplastics.org/bioplastics/.
Accessed 28 July 2018
2. European Bioplastics (2018) Biobased plastics.
https://www.european-bioplastics.org/bioplastics/mat
erials/biobased/. Accessed 28 July 2018
3. Changwichan K, Silalertruksa T, Gheewala SH
(2018) Eco-efficiency assessment of bioplastics pro-
duction systems and end-of-life options. Sustainability
10:952–966. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10040952
4. Shamsuddin IM, Jafar AJ, Shawai ASA, Yusuf S,
Lateefah M, Aminu I (2017) Bioplastics as better
alternative to petroplastics and their role in national
sustainability: a review. Adv Biosci Bioeng 5:63–70.
https://doi.org/10.11648/j.abb.20170504.13
5. Bioplastics Market (2018). http://docs.european-
bioplastics.org/publications/market_data/2017/Report
_Bioplastics_Market_Data_2017.pdf. Accessed
9 Aug 2018
6. Khuenkeao T, Petchwattana N, Covavisaruch S (2016)
Thermal and mechanical properties of bioplastic poly
(lactic acid) compounded with silicone rubber and
talc. AIP Conf Proc 1713:080005. https://doi.org/
10.1063/1.4942294
7. Arrieta MP, Garcia FP, Lopez Martinez J, Navarro
Vidal R, Ferrandiz S (2012) Pyrolysis of bioplastics
waste: obtained products from poly(lactic acid) (PLA).
Dyna 87:395–399. https://doi.org/10.6036/4673
8. Bioplastic News (2018) Top bioplastic materials.
https://bioplasticsnews.com/bioplastics-raw-
materials/. Accessed 3 Aug 2018
9. Keshavarz T, Roy I (2010) Polyhydroxyalkanoates:
bioplastics with a green agenda. Curr Opin
Microbiol 13:321–326. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mib.
2010.02.006
10. Vert M, Doi Y, Hellwich K-H, Hess M, Hodge P,
Kubisa P, Rinaudo M, Schué F (2012) Terminology
for biorelated polymers and applications (IUPAC
recommendations). Pure Appl Chem 84:377–410.
https://doi.org/10.1351/PAC-REC-10-12-04
11. Federal Trade Commission (2018) Environmentally
friendly products: FTC’s green guides. https://www.
ftc.gov/news-events/media-resources/truth-advertisin
g/green-guides. Accessed 03 Aug 2018
12. Compostable definition (2018). http://www.greengoo
d.com/terms_to_know/compostable_definitions.htm.
Accessed 3 Aug 2018
13. California Legislative Information (2018) Senate
Bill No. 567, Chapter 594. http://leginfo.legislature.
ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=20112012
0SB567. Accessed 3 Aug 2018
14. Parker L (2018) Planet of plastic? National
Geographic. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/ma
gazine/2018/06/plastic-planet-waste-pollution-trash-c
risis/. Accessed 3 Aug 2018
15. New Plastic Economy (2018) Initiative led by the
Ellen MacArthur Foundation. https://newplastic
seconomy.org/about. Accessed 3 Aug 2018
16. Larsen J, Venkova S (2014) Plastic bag bans are
spreading in the United States. https://www.
treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/plastic-ba
g-bans-spreading-united-states.html. Accessed 3 Aug
2018
17. Beyond Benign Green Chemistry (2018). https://
www.beyondbenign.org/. Accessed 3 Aug 2018
18. Hudson R, Glaisher S, Bishop A, Katz JL (2015) From
lobster shells to plastic objects: a bioplastics activity.
J Chem Educ 92:1882–1885. https://doi.org/10.1021/
acs.jchemed.5b00108
19. Yadav P, Yadav H, Shah VG, Shah G, Dhaka G (2015)
Biomedical biopolymers, their origin and evolution in
biomedical sciences: a systematic review. J Clin Diagn
Res 9(9):ZE21–ZE25. https://doi.org/10.7860/JCDR/
2015/13907.6565
20. BCC Research (2018) Biodegradable polymers:
global markets and technologies through 2022
21. Klemm D, Schmauder H-S, Heinze T (2004) Cellu-
lose. In: De Baets S, Vandamme E, Steinbüchel AT
(eds) Polysaccharides II: polysaccharides from
eukaryotes, vol 6. Biopolymers in 10 volumes.
Wiley, Weinheim, pp 275–320
22. Barikani M, Oliaei E, Seddiqi H, Honarkar H (2014)
Preparation and application of chitin and its deriva-
tives: a review. Iran Polym J 23:307–326. https://doi.
org/10.1007/s13726-014-0225-z
23. Vikman M, Vartiainen J, Tsitko I, Korhonen P (2015)
Biodegradability and compostability of nanofibrillar
cellulose-based products. J Polym Environ 23:
206–215. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10924-014-0694-3
24. Hemjinda S, Krzan A, Chiellini E, Miertus S
(2007) Environmentally degradable polymeric mate-
rials and plastics. https://institute.unido.org/wp-cont
ent/uploads/2014/11/41.-Environmentally-Degradabl
e-Polymeric-Materials-and-Plastics-Guidelines.pdf.
Accessed 3 Aug 2018
25. Austin PR (1977) Chitin solution. US4059457 A
26. Yusof NLBM, Lim LY, Khor E (2001) Preparation and
characterization of chitin beads as a wound dressing
precursor. J Biomed Mater Res 54:59–68. https://doi.
org/10.1002/1097-4636(200101)54:1
27. Ji Y, Liang K, Shen X, Bowlin G (2014) Electro-
spinning and characterization of chitin nanofibril/
polycaprolactone nanocomposite fiber mats.
Carbohydr Polym 101:68–74. https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.carbpol.2013.09.012
28. Pillai CKS, Paul W, Sharma CP (2009) Chitin and
chitosan polymers: Chemistry, solubility and fiber for-
mation, Prog Polym Sci 34:641–678. https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.progpolymsci.2009.04.001
Chitin as a Resource for Eco-Friendly Bioplastics
29. Duan B, Zheng X, Xia Z, Fan X, Guo L, Liu J, Wang
Y, Ye Q, Zhang L (2015) Highly biocompatible nano-
fibrous microspheres self-assembled from chitin in
NaOH/Urea aqueous solution as cell carriers. Angew
Chem Int Ed 54:5152–5156. https://doi.org/10.1002/
anie.201412129
30. Future Market Insights (2017) Chitin market:
agrochemical end use industry segment inclined
towards high growth – moderate value during the
forecast period: global industry analysis (2012–2016)
and opportunity assessment (2017–2027). https://
www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/chitin-market.
Accessed 9 Aug 2018
31. Zavgorodnya O, Shamshina JL, Berton P, Rogers RD
(2017) Translational research from academia to indus-
try: following the pathway of George Washington
Carver. In: Shiflett MB, Scurto AM (eds) Ionic liquids:
current state and future directions. ACS symposium
series, vol 1250. American Chemical Society,
Washington, DC, pp 17–33. https://doi.org/10.1021/
bk-2017-1250.ch002
32. Hirano S, Nakahira T, Nakagawa M, Kim SK
(1999) The preparation and application of functional
fibers from crab shell chitin. J Biotechnol 70:373–377.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0079-6352(99)80130-1
33. Vázquez JA, Rodríguez-Amado I, Montemayor MI,
Fraguas J, González MP, Murado MA (2013) Chon-
droitin sulfate, hyaluronic acid and chitin/chitosan
production using marine waste sources: characteris-
tics, applications and eco-friendly processes: a review.
Mar Drugs 11:747–774. https://doi.org/10.3390/md1
1030747
34. Peluso G (2014) Chitosan-mediated stimulation of
macrophage function. Biomaterials 15:1215–1220.
https://doi.org/10.1016/0142-9612(94)90272-0
35. Prudden JF, Migel P, Hanson P, Freidrich L, Balassa
L (1970) The discovery of a potent pure chemical
wound-healing accelerator. Am J Surg 119:560–564.
https://doi.org/10.1016/0002-9610(70)90175-3
36. Singh R, Chacharkar MP, Mathur AK (2008) Chitin
membrane for wound dressing application – prepara-
tion, characterization and toxicological evaluation. Int
Wound J 5:665–673. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1742-
481X.2008.00482.x
37. Shigemasa Y, Minami S (1996) Applications of
chitin and chitosan for biomaterials. Biotechnol
Genet Eng Rev 13:383–420. https://doi.org/10.1080/
02648725.1996.10647935
38. Yang T-L (2011) Chitin-based materials in tissue engi-
neering: applications in soft tissue and epithelial
organ. Int J Mol Sci 12:1936–1963. https://doi.org/
10.3390/ijms12031936
39. Nakajima M, Atsumi K, Kifune K, Miura K,
Kanamaru H (1986) Chitin is an effective material
for sutures. Jpn J Surg 16:418–424. https://doi.org/
10.1007/BF02470609
40. Nivedhitha Sundaram M, Mony U, Jayakumar R
(2016) Chitin and chitosan as hemostatic agents. In
Encyclopedia of polymer science and technology.
7
Wiley, Hoboken. https://doi.org/10.1002/04714402
64.pst647
41. Jayakumar R, Chennazhi KP, Srinivasan S, Nair SV,
Furuike T, Tamura H (2011) Chitin scaffolds in tissue
engineering. Int J Mol Sci 12:1876–1887. https://doi.
org/10.3390/ijms12031876
42. Chow KS, Khor E, Wan ACA (2001) Porous chitin
matrices for tissue engineering: fabrication and
in-vitro cytotoxic assessment. J Polym Res 8:27–35.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10965-006-0132-x
43. Higashi S, Yamamuro T, Nakamura T, Ikada Y,
Hyon SH, Jamshidi K (1986) Polymer-hydroxyapatite
composites for biodegradable bone fillers. Biomate-
rials 7:183–187. https://doi.org/10.1016/0142-9612
(86)90099-2
44. Shi Q, Qian Z, Liu D, Liu H (2017) Surface modifica-
tion of dental titanium implant by layer-by-layer elec-
trostatic self-assembly. Front Physiol 8:1–7. https://
doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2017.00574
45. Mi FL, Shyu SS, Lin YM, Wu YB, Peng CK, Tsai YH
(2003) Chitin/PLGA blend microspheres as a biode-
gradable drug delivery system: a new delivery system
for protein. Biomaterials 24:5023–5036. https://doi.
org/10.1016/S0142-9612(03)00413-7
46. Rejinold SN, Chennazhi KP, Tamura H, Nair SV,
Rangasami J (2011) Multifunctional chitin nanogels
for simultaneous drug delivery, bioimaging, and
biosensing. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces
3:3654–3665. https://doi.org/10.1021/am200844m
47. Satam CC, Irvin CW, Lang AW, Jallorina JCR,
Shofner ML, Reynolds JR, Meredith JC
(2018) Spray-coated multilayer cellulose
nanocrystal-chitin nanofiber films for barrier applica-
tions. ACS Sustain Chem Eng 6:10637–10644.
https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.8b01536
48. Domard A (2011) A perspective on 30 years research
on chitin and chitosan. Carbohydr Polym 84:696–703.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carbpol.2010.04.083
49. Shamshina JL, Gurau G, Block LE, Hansen LK,
Dingee C, Walters A, Rogers RD (2014)
Chitin–calcium alginate composite fibers for wound
care dressings spun from ionic liquid solution. J Mater
Chem B 2:3924–3936. https://doi.org/10.1039/C4TB
00329B
50. Shen X, Shamshina JL, Berton P, Bandomir J, Wang
H, Gurau G.; Rogers RD (2015) Comparison of
hydrogels prepared with ionic-liquid-isolated vs com-
mercial chitin and cellulose. ACS Sustainable Chem
Eng 4:471–480. https://doi.org/10.1021/
acssuschemeng.5b01400
51. Zheng X-L, Zhao y-X, Xu M (2017) Efficacy and
safety of 3 nasal packing materials used after func-
tional endoscopic sinus surgery for chronic
rhinosinusitis: a comparative study in China. Med
Sci Monit 23:1992–1998. https://doi.org/10.12659/
MSM.899553
52. Ohtsuki K, Ohnishi M, Nakamura Y, Kurokawa E
(1990) Clinical application of “Chitin”, artificial skin
material in oral mucous defects. Jpn J Oral Maxillofac
8 Chitin as a Resource for Eco-Friendly Bioplastics
Surg 36:2103–2110. https://doi.org/10.5794/jjoms.
36.2103
53. Minami S, Okamoto Y, Miyatake K, Matsuhashi A,
Kitamura Y, Tanigawa T, Tanaka Y, Sbigemasa
Y (1996) Chitin induces type IV collagen and elastic
fiber in implanted non-woven fabric of polyester.
Carbohydr Polym 29:295–299. https://doi.org/10.10
16/S0144-8617(96)00078-1
54. N-CHITOPACK (2018) Report summary. https://cor
dis.europa.eu/result/rcn/163251_en.html. Accessed
3 Aug 2018
55. Qin Y, Lu X, Sun N, Rogers RD (2010) Dissolution or
extraction of crustacean shells using ionic liquids to
obtain high molecular weight purified chitin and direct
production of chitin films and fibers. Green Chem
12:968–971. https://doi.org/10.1039/C003583A
56. Shamshina JL, Rogers RD (2018) Are ionic liquids
enabling technology? Startup to scale-up to find out.
In: Shiflett M (ed) Commercial applications of ionic
liquids. Springer, New York. (in press)