A Study on the Photocatalytic and Antimicrobial Activities of Chitosan–ZnO Nanocomposites

ZnO nanoparticles can have their size, crystalline phase and aggregation inhibited by the biocompatible polymer chitosan. The production of ZnO nanoparticles with chitosan assistance was carried out using Sol-gel methodology. The nanoparticles have been studied using XRD, TGA, Surface analysis and HR-TEM. According to the findings, ZnO nanoparticles have a hexagonal shape and a particle size of roughly 91 nm. The synthesized nanoparticles exhibit improved photocatalytic activity for reactive dyes for Congo red when exposed to sunlight. The Langmuir-Hinshelwood (L-H) model revealed that the kinetics followed a pseudo-first-order. Additionally, the antibacterial activity was tested against the gram-negative Escherichia coli bacteria.