Thread spun from crab-shell and seaweed compounds

Scientists made strong, flexible threads from compounds in crab shells and seaweed. ↓↓More info and references below↓↓ Biobased fibers made from renewable sources could be useful for a variety of applications, including textiles or medical devices. But it can be difficult to make long, continuous threads from these materials. Now, researchers have made sturdy, flexible threads from a combination of chitin nanofibers extracted from crab shells and alginate, a compound found in seaweed. The team studied how differences in the concentration of each component, the size of the nanofibers, and other variables affected the mechanical properties and spinnability of the final thread. With this information, the researchers were able to produce strong, flexible threads continuously, limited only by the volume of each component. For more information: Nanochitins of Varying Aspect Ratio and Properties of Microfibers Produced by Interfacial Complexation with Seaweed Alginate | ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acssuschemeng.9b06099 Stay up to date with the most important chemistry news. Subscribe to C&EN's newsletter: cenm.ag/speakingsignup.

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