Summary: | Fifteen years ago, at least one multimated female yellow-legged Asian hornet (<i>Vespa velutina</i> Lepeletier 1836) arrived in France, which gave rise to a pan-European invasion. In this study, the isolation and characterization of chitin (CHI) that was obtained from <i>Vespa velutina</i> (CHI<sub>VV</sub>) is described. In addition, an easy procedure is carried out to capture the raw insect, selectively and with high rates of success. The chitin contents of dry VV was observed to be 11.7%. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), solid-state NMR (ssNMR), elemental analysis (EA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and thermogravimetric analysis (TG) characterized the physicochemical properties of CHI<sub>VV</sub>. The obtained CHI<sub>VV</sub> is close to pure (43.47% C, 6.94% H, and 6.85% N), and full acetylated with a value of 95.44%. Additionally, lifetime and kinetic parameters such as activation E and the frequency factor A using model-free and model-fitting methods, were determined. For CHI<sub>VV</sub> the solid state mechanism that follows the thermodegradation is of type F2 (random nucleation around two nuclei). The invasive Asian hornet is a promising alternative source of CHI, based on certain factors, such as the current and probable continued abundance of the quantity and quality of the product obtained.
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