ON THE BENEFITS OF ECO-FRIENDLY CHITOSAN/ZnO COMPOSITE

Chitosan (CS) is one of the most abundant bio-polymers that can be found on the planet. It is a natural biopolymer obtained from crustaceans’ shells. Because it has great advantages like the fact that it is bio-compatible, degradable, non-toxic, and has antimicrobial activity, it has been widely used in different applications: wound dressing, drug delivery, food packaging, water treatment etc. Adding zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles to chitosan improves its antibacterial activity. Preliminary results of a study of the effect of ZnO addition (various concentrations) in chitosan-based composites are presented in this work. The exploration of chitosan/ZnO nanocomposites as sustainable materials is the subject of this paper.