Leonardo Journal of Sciences ISSN 1583-0233 Issue 26, January-June 2015 p. 57-66 Lactic acid demineralization of shrimp shell and chitosan synthesis Alewo Opuada AMEH * , Muhammed Tijani ISA, Mariam AYINLA, Samuel Okon BASSEY, and Blessing Mayowa OLATUNJI Department of Chemical Engineering, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria. E-mails: aoameh@abu.edu.ng ; mtisaz@yahoo.com ; mariam2hot@gmail.com ; okonbassey56@gmail.com ; olatunji.blessing@yahoo.com * Corresponding author, phone: +2348035600744 Abstract The use of lactic acid was compared to hydrochloric acid for shrimp shell demineralization in chitosan synthesis. Five different acid concentrations were considered for the study: 1.5M, 3.0M, 4.5M, 6.0M and 7.5M. After demineralization, the shrimp shell were deproteinized and subsequently deacetylated to produce chitosan using sodium hydroxide solution. The synthesized chitosan samples were characterized using solubility, FTIR, SEM, XRD and viscosity. The SEM, FTIR and XRD analysis indicated that chitosan was synthesized with a high degree of deacetylation (83.18±2.11 when lactic acid was used and 84.2±5.00 when HCl was used). The degree of deacetylation and the molecular weight of the chitosan samples were also estimated. ANOVA analysis (at 95% confidence interval) indicated that acid type and concentration did not significantly affect the solubility, degree of deacetylation, viscosity and molecular weight of the chitosan within the range considered. Keywords Chitosan; Demineralization; Lactic acid; Shrimp 57 http://ljs.academicdirect.org/