UV- Visible, Mechanical and Anti-Microbial Studies of Chitosan - Montmorillonite Clay / TiO 2 Nanocomposites

The development of bio-based nanocomposites are carried out with the intention of providing physical protection for food, improving food integrity, and preventing contamination from microbes and fungi 1,2 . Nanocomposites of chitosan, nanoclay (MMT-Na + ) and Titanium dioxide (TiO 2) were prepared. The UV- Visible analysis of the samples was carried out using UV- Visible Spectrophotometer. Maximum absorbance was observed at 362 nm for 5weight percentage (wt%) MMT and 0.8 TiO 2 loading. From the Tauc,s plot, it was observed that the optical band gap was found to be in the range of 2.9 to 2.2 eV. The refractive index of the material was also calculated. The structural properties were studied using X-ray diffraction (XRD) Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM). XRD and TEM results indicated that an exfoliated structure was formed by the addition of small amount of filler. Antibacterial activity was investigated using gram- negative bacteria and gram- positive bacteria. All have high antibacterial activity. The 30% increase in tensile strength was observed in the case of 5wt% nanofiller loading.