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US 4,286,087 AGranted
Chitin powder and process for making it
AssigneeUniversity of Delaware
InventorsPaul R. Austin, Charles J. Brine
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A friable, dispersible microcrystalline chitin powder and a process of making same by treating particulate chitin at an elevated temperature with phosphoric acid, particularly with phosphoric acid diluted with a lower aliphatic alcohol, separating the treated chitin and subjecting same to shearing in an inert liquid medium until a uniform dispersion is obtained, thereafter separating the sheared chitin and drying and grinding same to a fine powder.
Claims6
A process of making a dispersible chitin powder which comprises the sequential steps of
- (a) dispersing a particulate chitin in a mixture of phosphoric acid and a lower aliphatic alcohol,
- (b) heating said dispersion to hydrolyze the chitin to the desired lower molecular weight,
- (c) removing the hydrolyzed chitin from the dispersion,
- (d) redispersing the hydrolyzed chitin in water by mixing same with 5 to 25% water and subjecting the mixture to high speed shear forces,
- (e) removing the water from the dispersion by drying said sheared hydrolyzed chitin,
- (f) grinding the dried sheared hydrolyzed chitin to the desired particle size.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.