Dissolution or extraction of crustacean shells using ionic liquids to obtain high molecular weight purified chitin and direct production of chitin films and fibers

Authors: Ying Qin, Xingmei Lü, Ning Sun, Robin D. Rogers - Green Chemistry 2010 cited by 389

1-Ethyl-3-methyl-imidazolium acetate can completely dissolve raw crustacean shells, leading to recovery of a high purity, high molecular weight chitin powder and to fibers and films which can be spun directly from the extract solution.