Facile synthesis of Flower-like ZnO loading Cellulose-Chitosan nanocomposite films by biomimetic approach with enhanced performance

Flower-like ZnO composed of nanoplate was synthesized using biopolymers cellulose and chitosan via biomimetic strategy under a mild alkaline solution. In this work, we described ZnO-based cellulose/chitosan hybrid nanocomposites with enhanced mechanical, thermal, photocatalytic and antibacterial properties. Due to the uniform dispersion of ZnO nanoparticles with mean sizes of approximately 10 nm and the hydrogen bonds formed between ZnO and polysaccharides, CCZ exhibited enhanced tensile strength, which grew 1.5 times compared to neat CCF. CCZ exhibited superior antibacterial and photocatalytic activities. The width of inhibition zones around CCZ films reached 15.6–20.6 mm and 8.4–13.6 mm for S. aureus and E. coli, respectively. Furthermore, biopolymers cellulose and chitosan interacting with ZnO NPs tuned the bandgap of the semiconductor, leading to the enhancement of photocatalytic abilities. 87.1 % of methyl orange (MO) was degraded by CCZ nanocomposite within 50 min. CCZ nanocomposite remained stable after 3 cycles. The facile method extended biomimetic strategy to construct functional nanocomposite materials and provided a new route to synthesize specific morphology of ZnO NPs for various practical applications such as wastewater treatment, antibacterial materials, and solar cells.