Ultrasonic treatment of α-chitin regenerated from a NaOH/urea solvent with tunable capacity for stabilization of oil in water emulsion

α-chitin cannot be dispersed directly with ultrasonic treatment because of the strong intermolecular forces. However, in the current work, when α-chitin was first regenerated from a NaOH/urea solvent, the regenerated α-chitin can then be easily dispersed with ultrasonic treatment under weak acidic conditions. The morphology, size, zeta potential, structure and optical transmittance of the dispersed α-chitin solution were characterized by TEM, DLS, XRD and UV spectroscopy respectively. The dispersed chitin was then used for stabilization of oil in water emulsion. It was found that the emulsifying capacity of regenerated chitin was tunable by ultrasonic treatment. The dispersed chitin exhibited excellent emulsifying ability and the resulting emulsion was stable after long-term storage. In short, in this paper, a novel way to prepare dispersed chitin with excellent emulsifying ability was presented, and its emulsifying properties were further evaluated.