Antimicrobial properties of biodegradable polymer based ternary blend for wastewater treatment

Biodegradable based ternary blends has good antimicrobial properties and it has been verified against gram / negative E. coli, Pseudomonas sp. aeruoginosa, and gram-positive Staphylococcus sp. S. aureus bacteria. The comparison of binary and ternary blended reveals that more inhibition zone efficiency is found for ternary blended. Chitosan/nylon 6/clay (1:1:2), (2:1:1) and (1:2:1) respectively were reported. The binary blends inhibition zone chitosan/clay (2:1) recorded the maximum zone of inhibition in comparison with the standard chloramphenicol against E. coli (39 mm), Pseudomonas sp. aeuroginosa (36 mm), followed by S.aureus (22 mm). Most of the polymer blends showed higher inhibitory activity against Gram-negative strains than the Gram-positive bacteria. The antifungal activity of the chitosan polymer blends is seen and this activity is more pronounced against fungi. The inhibition was stronger in the order of chitosan/nylon 6/clay (2:1:1) followed by Chitosan/nylon 6/clay (1:1:1) and (1:1:2) against Aspergillus niger, Candida albicans and candida tropicalis. A higher inhibitory zone was recorded against Aspergillus niger (36 mm), Candida albicans (33 mm), and Candida tropicalis (36 mm) by chitosan/clay (2:1:1) when compared with standard amphoterecin B. Meanwhile Chitosan/nylon 6/clay (1:2:1) showed less activity. The present study is aimed to fetch the knowledge about the antimicrobial properties of biodegradable polymer based ternary blends in detail. Keywords: Chitosan; Nylon 6; Clay; Antimicrobial activity; Antifungal activity