Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

can i ask what is the chemical composition of chitin????

hey dana_nei47

Chitin is a polymer of glucosamine, with an acetyl group attached to a variable number of the individual glucosamine molecules -> (C8H13NO5)n. These acethylglucosamine groups link together into a linear chain to construct a chitin molecule.

You can take a look at the structure of it here:
http://www.ocean.udel.edu/horseshoecrab ... tin.html#2

This website has an in depth analysis of chitin and may help you answer any other questions:
http://www.greatvistachemicals.com/bioc ... hitin.html

If you need anything else, feel free to post again.

Please keep all related threads on the same posting. This helps us better help you.

Here is another link at Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitin

Please let us know in this thread whether this and the above links answer your current questions, and what new questions they produce.

Here are some other sights that I thought were good:
http://www.uni-ulm.de/biologie1/Forschu ... itine.html
http://www.euchis.org/
http://wywy.essortment.com/whatischitin_rkkh.htm

..its helpful to consult an encyclopedia as well...