Clothes could soon be woven from the chitosan fibres found in crab and
lobster shells, according to Japanese researchers. Thread has previously been
made from chitosan fibres, which are composed mainly of carbohydrates, but it
was too weak to be of any practical use. Now a team at Shinshu University in
Nagano has found that when negatively charged polysaccharides are mixed with the
positively charged chitosan in solution, much tougher fibres are created. The
team says the material is as lustrous as silk and stronger than cotton.
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