Date of Defense
7-4-2026 10:00 AM
Location
Building F1, Room 1043
Document Type
Thesis Defense
Degree Name
Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering (MSME)
College
College of Engineering
Department
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
First Advisor
Abdel-Hamid Mourad
Keywords
nanocomposite; metal oxide nanoparticles; chitosan; antibacterial activity; photocatalytic; methylene blue; degradation
Abstract
Nanocomposites of polymers combined with metal oxide nanoparticles have gained much attention due to their synergistic properties leading to enhanced functional ability. Herein, we report the synthesis of a nanocomposite composed of chitosan (CS) with Ag/ZnO nanoparticles produced via a wet chemistry route and fabrication of a pure CS and CS/Ag/ZnO thin films while varying the concentration of ZnO for each sample using a sol-gel transformation method. The CS/Ag/ZnO nanocomposite was characterized to study its crystal structure, morphology, thermal, and chemical properties. Morphological studies revealed uniform deposition of Ag NPs (with size range of 20-50 nm) and ZnO nanoparticles (with size range of 80-100 nm) within the chitosan matrix. XRD analysis of the composite revealed a shift in peak position of chitosan and suppression of crystalline peaks of Ag and ZnO NPs. The TGA analysis confirmed better thermal stability of the composite with the infusion of Ag and ZnO NPs. FTIR and Raman analysis confirmed the molecular interaction of Ag and ZnO NPs with CS. The estimated band gap of the CS/Ag/ZnO was 2.97 eV which is lower than Ag and ZnO NPs. The nanocomposite showed a remarkable antibacterial activity against human pathogens tested using the resazurin assay with the highest potency observed for E. coli with both minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) values of 0.1562 µg/µL. Further, the catalytic response of CS/Ag/ZnO towards the photodegradation of the methylene blue dye revealed degradation of 89.4% within 120 min under simulated sunlight. The findings confirm that the synthesized CS/Ag/ZnO thin films are highly suitable for biomedical device application.
Included in
Development of Chitosan Encapsulated Ag/ZnO Ternary Nanocomposites for Multifunctional Activity: Synthesis and Characterization
Building F1, Room 1043
Nanocomposites of polymers combined with metal oxide nanoparticles have gained much attention due to their synergistic properties leading to enhanced functional ability. Herein, we report the synthesis of a nanocomposite composed of chitosan (CS) with Ag/ZnO nanoparticles produced via a wet chemistry route and fabrication of a pure CS and CS/Ag/ZnO thin films while varying the concentration of ZnO for each sample using a sol-gel transformation method. The CS/Ag/ZnO nanocomposite was characterized to study its crystal structure, morphology, thermal, and chemical properties. Morphological studies revealed uniform deposition of Ag NPs (with size range of 20-50 nm) and ZnO nanoparticles (with size range of 80-100 nm) within the chitosan matrix. XRD analysis of the composite revealed a shift in peak position of chitosan and suppression of crystalline peaks of Ag and ZnO NPs. The TGA analysis confirmed better thermal stability of the composite with the infusion of Ag and ZnO NPs. FTIR and Raman analysis confirmed the molecular interaction of Ag and ZnO NPs with CS. The estimated band gap of the CS/Ag/ZnO was 2.97 eV which is lower than Ag and ZnO NPs. The nanocomposite showed a remarkable antibacterial activity against human pathogens tested using the resazurin assay with the highest potency observed for E. coli with both minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) values of 0.1562 µg/µL. Further, the catalytic response of CS/Ag/ZnO towards the photodegradation of the methylene blue dye revealed degradation of 89.4% within 120 min under simulated sunlight. The findings confirm that the synthesized CS/Ag/ZnO thin films are highly suitable for biomedical device application.