Anti-bacterial chitosan/zinc phthalocyanine fibers supported metallic and bimetallic nanoparticles for the removal of organic pollutants.

In this report, we prepared chitosan (CS) membrane, CS/zinc phthalocyanine (ZnPc-CS) composite fibers and pellets as support for the synthesis of zero valent metal nanoparticles. The composite fibers and pellets of ZnPc-CS were prepared by simply dispersing 5wt% of ZnPc in CS solution. ZnPc-CS composite were applied as economical host material for the development of metallic and bimetallic zero valent nanoparticles. The composites of ZnPc-CS were put in 0.1M metals salt solutions (mono- and bi-metallic) for the adsorption of metal ions. The metal ions adsorbed ZnPc-CS fibers were treated with 0.1M sodium borohydride (NaBH4) aqueous solution for conversion of metal ions into nanoparticles. Thus, through water based in-situ preparation process, metals nanoparticles loaded on ZnPc-CS composite fibers and pellets were achieved. The presence of respective metals nanoparticles on the composite fibers was confirmed using FE-SEM, XRD and FTIR. Moreover, we determined that these composites exhibit excellent catalytic efficiency and recyclability in the reduction reactions of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP), methyl orange (MO) and cango red (CR). In addition, these composites displayed high antibacterial activity as tested against pathogenic bacteria Escherichia coli.