ABSTRACT
Chitin and its derivatives find applications in various fields, mainly paper making, textiles printing and sizing, flocculation, ion-exchange chromatography, removal of metal ions from industrial effluents, manufacture of pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, and as an additive in the food industry. Properties of chitin and its derivatives deserve particular attention and are used for the treatment of tannery wastewater due to its particular structure, physicochemical characteristics, chemical stability, high reactivity, and excellent selectivity toward metal and aromatic compounds, resulting from the presence of chemical reactive groups in polymer chains. This chapter aims to convince young readers to further research on the possible technology that tends to care for the environment and remediation of industrial effluent. Special attention has been given to chemical modification chitin, since it has the greatest potential to be fully exploited. Tosyl chitin was first converted to thioacetyl chitin using potassium thioacetate, and the S-acetyl group was removed with alkali treatment to yield mercapto chitin.
