Practical 3B: Chitin in KOH

Practical 3B

Week 4

Teammates Present: Nelly, Jovan

Written By Jovan

Regarding Chitin dissolution, not much progress has been made. In fact, there were setbacks met with its experimental procedures over 2 weeks. There were issues regarding its progress in week 4 as there were insufficient research done into its effective solvent and more attention was focused into chitosan instead.

 

    

Figure 1: Undissolved chitin in 100ml 2M KOH

 

Figure 2: Chitosan in 10ml 2M KOH

The dissolved chitin appeared to not dissolve in the KOH solution after 15mins and similar results were observed after 30mins.

Chitin seems to be very insoluble in KOH; an in-depth literature review must be done to further streamline its focus and find a suitable solvent for it. Perhaps a deeper understanding to chitin and chitosan properties should be accounted for as well.

Follow-Up

Each person to focus on one solute, either chitin or chitosan. Nelly to take chitosan and Jovan to take chitin.

Modify the work procedure for chitin side.

More literature review to be done to narrow down suitable solvents (acid and base) for each solute.