Abstract
High molecular weight chitosan was synthesized from shrimp shells. Chemical structure of chitosan was confirmed using FT-IR, XRD, TGA, and SEM analyses. Physicochemical properties of chi-tosan such as molecular weight (800 000 g/mol), deacetylation degree (80%), ash content (1%) indicating effectiveness of demineralization step in removing minerals, water binding capacity (4220%), and fat binding capacity (537%), were determined. FT-IR spectra exhibited characteristic joint band at 3365 cm-1 due to -OH and -NH2 regarding to the conversion of chitin acetyl group to NH2 of chitosan.