Biological activities of chitosan-schiff base-metal (Ag and Zn) nanocomposites

A novel sustained-release technique for supplementing with zinc and silver, known as (3-Formyl-4-hydroxybenzyl)triphenylphosphonium chloride-chitosan Schiff base (CSB-Ag-Zn), is presented in the current study. The goal of this system's development was to supply zinc. This system was developed using CSB-Zn-Ag nanocomposites, which had been chelated with Zn²⁺ and Ag⁺, to enhance the utilization ratio of trace elements zinc and silver. Several analytical methods, like transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and dynamic light scattering (DLS), were used to characterize the samples. The TEM results indicated that the Ag and Zn nanoparticles had a mean size of 27.5 nm, a low degree of agglomeration, and a roughly spherical shape. They were also evenly distributed throughout the CSB. Furthermore, the mean size of CSB-Ag-Zn NPs was 69.6 nm, indicating that the chitosan coating on the Zn and Ag nanoparticles' surface successfully. The nanocomposite demonstrated potent antibacterial activity with MICs of 4 μg/mL and 2 μg/mL for S. aureus and E. coli, respectively. The antimicrobial activities of CSB-Ag-Zn NPs against different fungi and bacteria types indicated remarkable antibacterial and antifungal effectiveness, potentially useful for future biomedical applications.