sodium hydroxide, chitin and chitosan were purchased from Aldrich. The present study has
evaluated the effect of temperature, hydroxide concentration and time on chitin from shrimp in the deacetylation
process. Similar amounts of chitin and sodium hydroxide solutions were stirred jointly at room temperature or 363 K
or even aged under static conditions at 393 K into a stainless steel autoclave, after previous mixing at room
temperature. NaOH concentrations of 2.0 and 10.0 mol dm3
were employed while the reaction times were 3 and 24
h. The resultant solids were filtered and washed until pH 7, than dried at environmental conditions. The
experimental conditions for each sample are summarized in Table 1 that also included some other results.