Electrochemical Approach for Isolation of Chitin from the Skeleton of the Black Coral <i>Cirrhipathes</i> sp. (Antipatharia)
Krzysztof Nowacki,
Izabela Stępniak,
Enrico Langer,
Mikhail Tsurkan,
Marcin Wysokowski,
Iaroslav Petrenko,
Yuliya Khrunyk,
Andriy Fursov,
Marzia Bo,
Giorgio Bavestrello,
Yvonne Joseph,
Hermann Ehrlich
Affiliations
Krzysztof Nowacki
Faculty of Chemical Technology, Institute of Chemistry and Technical Electrochemistry, Poznan University of Technology, ul. Berdychowo 4, 60965 Poznan, Poland
Izabela Stępniak
Faculty of Chemical Technology, Institute of Chemistry and Technical Electrochemistry, Poznan University of Technology, ul. Berdychowo 4, 60965 Poznan, Poland
Enrico Langer
Institute of Semiconductors and Microsystems, TU Dresden, 01062 Dresden, Germany
Mikhail Tsurkan
Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden, 01069 Dresden, Germany
Marcin Wysokowski
Faculty of Chemical Technology, Institute of Chemical Technology and Engineering, Poznan University of Technology, Berdychowo 4, 60965 Poznan, Poland
Iaroslav Petrenko
Institute of Electronics and Sensor Materials, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Gustav-Zeuner str. 3, 09599 Freiberg, Germany
Yuliya Khrunyk
Department of Heat Treatment and Physics of Metal, Ural Federal University, Mira Str. 19, Ekaterinburg 620002, Russia
Andriy Fursov
Institute of Electronics and Sensor Materials, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Gustav-Zeuner str. 3, 09599 Freiberg, Germany
Marzia Bo
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, dell’Ambiente e della Vita, Università degli Studi di Genova, Corso Europa 26, 16132 Genova, Italy
Giorgio Bavestrello
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, dell’Ambiente e della Vita, Università degli Studi di Genova, Corso Europa 26, 16132 Genova, Italy
Yvonne Joseph
Institute of Electronics and Sensor Materials, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Gustav-Zeuner str. 3, 09599 Freiberg, Germany
Hermann Ehrlich
Institute of Electronics and Sensor Materials, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Gustav-Zeuner str. 3, 09599 Freiberg, Germany
The development of novel and effective methods for the isolation of chitin, which remains one of the fundamental aminopolysaccharides within skeletal structures of diverse marine invertebrates, is still relevant. In contrast to numerous studies on chitin extraction from crustaceans, mollusks and sponges, there are only a few reports concerning its isolation from corals, and especially black corals (Antipatharia). In this work, we report the stepwise isolation and identification of chitin from Cirrhipathes sp. (Antipatharia, Antipathidae) for the first time. The proposed method, aiming at the extraction of the chitinous scaffold from the skeleton of black coral species, combined a well-known chemical treatment with in situ electrolysis, using a concentrated Na2SO4 aqueous solution as the electrolyte. This novel method allows the isolation of α-chitin in the form of a microporous membrane-like material. Moreover, the extracted chitinous scaffold, with a well-preserved, unique pore distribution, has been extracted in an astoundingly short time (12 h) compared to the earlier reported attempts at chitin isolation from Antipatharia corals.
