Synthesis and Characterization of Chitosan with Silica (CS) Nanocomposite with Enhanced Antibacterial Activity

Abstract

A mixture of nanocomposite material has been obtained by in situ formations of an inorganic network in the presence of a preformed organic polymer. Chitosan biopolymer is the most common and then silica is used in composite materials, which were used for the sol-gel reaction. The average particles size of nanocomposite powder is 63.33nm as measured by XRD. Chitosan-silica nanocomposite (CS) has a rough surface texture which appears as agglomerates of varied sizes and shapes of microfibrils and separate binding crystalline structure measured by SEM. The agar well diffusion assay is used to confirm the inhibition zone of bacteria. The nanocomposite showed antibacterial activity when tested against the pathogens gram-positive bacteria and gram-negative bacteria. Further, the synthesized nanocomposite was characterized by using X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX), Particle size analysis (PSA), UV–vis absorption spectroscopy (UV) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR).