“…Ch and ChNCs present well-defined diffraction peaks centered at 2θ = 9.3, 12.7, 19.3, 23.3, and 26.3° . These peaks can be identified with native α-chitin (similarly to previous reports on ChNCs isolated upon acid hydrolysis), ,, having a orthorhombic cell structure and large degree of acetylation for Ch and correlate to the crystalline planes of (020), (021), (110), (130), and (013), respectively. , The crystallinity index was obtained through the peak height method, which accounts for the intensity ratios between the intensity of the most crystalline reflection (110) with the intensity of the diffuse halo according to eq . Results show an increase from the 87.8–89.4% for Ch, to 90.1–92.2% to ChNCs (in line with the intensity increase observed), underlying the removal of the amorphous regions upon HCl hydrolysis.…”