Department of Food Engineering and Technology, Central Institute of Technology, Kokrajhar 783370, India.
Functional Materials Group, Department of Applied Physics, School of Engineering Sciences, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Hannes Alfvéns väg 12, 114 19 Stockholm, Sweden.
Int J Mol Sci. 2021 Apr 26;22(9):4513. doi: 10.3390/ijms22094513.
Functional nanocomposites with biopolymers and zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles is an emerging application of photocatalysis in antifouling coatings. The reduced chemical stability of ZnO in the acidic media in which chitosan is soluble affects the performance of chitosan nanocomposites in antifouling applications. In this study, a thin shell of amorphous tin dioxide (SnO) was grown on the surface of ZnO to form ZnO-SnO core-shell nanoparticles that improved the chemical stability of the photocatalyst nanoparticles, as examined at pH 3 and 6. The photocatalytic activity of ZnO-SnO in the degradation of methylene blue (MB) dye under visible light showed a higher efficiency than that of ZnO nanoparticles due to the passivation of electronic defects. Chitosan-based antifouling coatings with varying percentages of ZnO or ZnO-SnO nanoparticles, with or without the glutaraldehyde (GA) crosslinking of chitosan, were developed and studied. The incorporation of photocatalysts into the chitosan matrix enhanced the thermal stability of the coatings. Through a mesocosm study using running natural seawater, it was found that chitosan/ZnO-SnO/GA coatings enabled better inhibition of bacterial growth compared to chitosan coatings alone. This study demonstrates the antifouling potential of chitosan nanocomposite coatings containing core-shell nanoparticles as an effective solution for the prevention of biofouling.
具有生物聚合物和氧化锌 (ZnO) 纳米粒子的功能纳米复合材料是光催化在防污涂层中的一个新兴应用。壳聚糖在其可溶的酸性介质中 ZnO 的化学稳定性降低影响了壳聚糖纳米复合材料在防污应用中的性能。在这项研究中，在 ZnO 表面生长了一层无定形氧化锡 (SnO) 的薄壳，形成了 ZnO-SnO 核壳纳米粒子，提高了光催化剂纳米粒子的化学稳定性，在 pH 值为 3 和 6 时进行了测试。ZnO-SnO 在可见光下降解亚甲基蓝 (MB) 染料的光催化活性由于电子缺陷的钝化，比 ZnO 纳米粒子具有更高的效率。开发并研究了具有不同百分比 ZnO 或 ZnO-SnO 纳米粒子的壳聚糖基防污涂料，其中一些含有或不含有壳聚糖的戊二醛 (GA) 交联。光催化剂掺入壳聚糖基质中提高了涂层的热稳定性。通过使用流动天然海水的中观研究，发现壳聚糖/ZnO-SnO/GA 涂层比单独的壳聚糖涂层更能抑制细菌生长。这项研究证明了含有核壳纳米粒子的壳聚糖纳米复合材料涂层作为防止生物污损的有效解决方案的防污潜力。
