A facile construction of bacterial cellulose/ZnO nanocomposite films and their photocatalytic and antibacterial properties

Bacterial cellulose (BC) has numerous excellent properties but the absence of antibacterial activity restricts its applications in biomedical field. Therefore, in order to introduce the antibacterial characteristics into BC; herein, a facile method for incorporation of ZnO nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) is presented. BC films were first immersed in zinc nitrate solution, followed by treating with NaOH solution, the BC loaded ZnO nanocomposite films were dried by a sheet former instrument at 80 °C for 20 min. The obtained BC/ZnO nanocomposites were characterized by different techniques. XRD results showed the hexagonal wurtzite structure of ZnO-NPs while FE-SEM results displayed the particle size of ZnO-NPs was ranging from 70 to 100 nm. Thermogravimetric study revealed the thermal stability of nanocomposite films. The nanocomposite exhibited photocatalytic activity and revealed 91% degradation of methyl orange (MO) under UV-irradiation within 2 h. Moreover, the nanocomposites demonstrated significant UV-blocking properties and showed antibacterial activities against tested Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial strains. This work provides a simple and novel method for the synthesis of BC/ZnO nanocomposite as a functional biomaterial.