Table 1.

Mechanical properties of native chitin from different sources, nanofibrillated chitin and chitin nanocrystals.

material type/chitin source	hydration state	Young's Modulus (GPa)	tensile strength (MPa)	crystalline structure and crystallinity %	ref
fibre-chitin from snow crab (C. opilio)	dry	59.3	−	α-chitin	[66]
mantis shrimp saddle chitin and protein bound	dry	240		α-chitin	[64]
mantis shrimp saddle chitin only	dry	80		α-chitin	[64]
fibre–cellulose	dry	86	−	Cellulose I	[67]
fibre–kevlar	−	85	−	−	[68]
beetle elytra–Potosia brevitarsis	dry	5.45	−	−	[69]
beetle elytra–Allomyrina dichotoma	dry	4.34	130	−	[69]
beetle elytra–Pachynoda sinuata	dry	0.09–1.52	36–69	−	[70]
regenerated chitin (RC) films/nanopapers–crabs	wet	0.33	20	−	[71]
RC films/nanopapers–crabs	dry	1.095	36	−	[71]
RC films/nanopapers–squid pan(Illex argentines)		6.7	277	89% β-chitin	[72]
RC films/nanopapers–α-chitin from crabs	dry	9	156.5	α-chitin	[73]
RC films/nanopapers–prawn shells	dry	7.3	89.4	α-chitin	[74]
RC films/nanopapers–mushroom (Agaricus bisporus)	dry	6.9	204.4	−	[75]