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The global ban on plastic microbeads for personal care products has forced researchers to find sustainable alternatives. However, current biodegradable microbeads rarely offer competitive quality (mechanical properties and stability) and...

Well-known hard-template methodsf or nitrogen (N)-doped chiral carbon nanomaterials require complicated construction and removal of the template, high-temperature pyrolysis, harsh chemicalt reatments, and additional N-doping processes. If naturallyo ccurring chiral nematic chitin nanostructures [(C 8 H 13 NO 5 ) n ]i ne xoskeletons were whollyt ransformed into an N-doped carbon, this would be an efficient and sustainable methodt oo btain au seful chiral nanomaterial. Here, as imple, sacrificial-template-free, and environmentally mild method was developed to produce an N-doped chiral nematic carbonsheath nanofibril hydrogel with as urfacea rea > 300 m 2 g À1 and enantioselective properties from renewable chitin biomass. Calcium-saturated methanol physically exfoliated bulk chitin and produced ac hiral nematic nanofibril hydrogel. Hydrothermal treatment of the chiral chitin hydrogel at 190 8Cp roduced an N-doped chiralc arbon-sheath nanofibril hydrogel without N-doping. This materialp referentially adsorbed d-lactic acid over l-lactic acid andp roduced 16.3 %e nantiomeric excesso f l-lactic acid from ar acemic mixture.[a] H.Supporting Information and the ORCID identification number(s) for the author(s) of this article can be found under: https://doi.