Hi! Does anybody knows the chemical structure of the chitin (polysaccharide)? I am going to use cooked shells of lobsters and shrimp to filter wastewater. Will the cooked shells be effective in filtering or should I use shells that are not cooked? What do you think?

It's not just chitin in many crustaceans; some have a calcium carbonate layer in there too, especially the big ones.

Here's the structure of chitin, source: Wikipedia.

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/66/Chitin_fixed.png

Thanks. Wikipedia works. It gives a good structure of chitin.