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Green Preparation of Chitin and Nanochitin from Black Soldier Fly for Production of Biodegradable Packaging Material

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Abstract

Black Soldier Fly (BSF) is a novel option to convert organic waste into high economic products such as protein, lipid, and chitin. Due to the drawbacks of petrochemical-based plastic, the biodegradable film has attracted much attention; among these, chitin-based packaging film is a promising material. This study extracted the chitin from BSF using a co-solvent of glycerol and hydrochloric acid (HCl). The chitin nanofiber has a dimension of 34 nm in width and 494 in length following Transmission Electron Microscopy analysis (TEM). Besides, the obtained chitin was also added to the gelatin-based film for packaging application. The chitin/gelation packaging was evaluated for its suitability in food application by testing its antioxidant activity, thickness, grammage, opacity, moisture, and water solubility. The film developed with more than 0.5 wt.% chitin and nanochitin showed high antioxidant activity, while adding chitin does not significantly change the thermal stability of the gelatin films. The chemical structure of chitin and bio-packaging was determined by Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), and Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA). This study provides a green and facile approach for chitin production from BSF by using co-solvent and reveals the potential of insect chitin in creating active bio-packaging.

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Data Availability

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article and its supplementary information files.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the support of time and facilities from Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HCMUT), VNU-HCM for this study.

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  1. Tan M. Le, Chi L. Tran and Thang X. Nguyen have equally contributed to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HCMUT), 268 Ly Thuong Kiet Street, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

    Tan M. Le, Chi L. Tran, Thang X. Nguyen, Yen H. P. Duong, Phung K. Le & Viet T. Tran

  2. Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City (VNU-HCM), Linh Trung Ward, Thu Duc District, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

    Tan M. Le, Chi L. Tran, Thang X. Nguyen, Yen H. P. Duong, Phung K. Le & Viet T. Tran

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Contributions

Conceptualization, formal analysis, investigation, writing, review and editing: TML, CLT, TXN; Writing—review and editing, investigation: YHPD; supervision, methodology, and conceptualization, review and editing: PKL; Funding acquisition, supervision, methodology, and conceptualization, review and editing: VTT. TML, TXN, and CLT have contributed equally and have the right to list their name first in their CV. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

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Correspondence to Viet T. Tran.

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Le, T.M., Tran, C.L., Nguyen, T.X. et al. Green Preparation of Chitin and Nanochitin from Black Soldier Fly for Production of Biodegradable Packaging Material. J Polym Environ 31, 3094–3105 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10924-023-02793-2

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