Chitosan assisted synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles: an efficient solar light driven photocatalyst and evaluation of antibacterial activity

Chitosan is a biocompatible polymer used to control the particle size, crystalline phase and prevent the aggregation of ZnO nanoparticles. The sol–gel methodology was adopted for the synthesis of Chitosan assisted ZnO nanoparticles. Powder XRD, FE-SEM, UV–DRS and XPES studies have been used to characterise the nanoparticles. The results show that the structural analysis of ZnO nanoparticles is hexagonal structure and the particle size was about 91 nm. The synthesised nanoparticles show an enhanced photocatalytic activity under solar radiation for reactive dyes such as methyl orange and rhodamine B. The kinetics was found to follow a pseudo-first-order according to Langmiur–Hinshelwood (L–H) model. Also the antibacterial activity was checked against Gram-negative Escherichia coli bacteria.