Abstract

• In this research, chitosan was prepared from Metapenaeus dobosoni species (Pezun-phyu) shrimp shell wastes by using a chemical method. The preparation of chitosan process consists of four steps such as deproteinization, demineralization, decolouration and deacetylation, respectively. The prepared chitosan (CS) was matched with FT IR and XRD reports of the standard chitosan. The prepared CS was also characterized by SEM. The yield percent of CS and the degree of acetylation were observed as 27.82 % and 72 %, respectively. The moisture and ash percentage of CS were observed to be 8.6 % and 0.2 %, respectively. The average crystallite size of the CS was 12.20 nm. The micrographs of CS showed the layers of flakes, porous and cage like morphology. The ZnO nanoparticle was prepared by co-precipitation method. It was characterized by TG-DTA, XRD, FT IR and SEM. The average crystallite size of the prepared ZnO nanoparticle was 20.99 nm. According to the SEM, the prepared ZnO nanoparticle showed spherical shape, porous structure and irregular surface morphology. And then chitosan-ZnO (CS-ZnO) nanocomposite was also prepared by using co-precipitation method. The prepared CS-ZnO nanocomposite was characterized by XRD, FT IR and SEM techniques. The average crystallite size of prepared CS-ZnO nanocomposite was 13.78 nm. In the present study, antimicrobial activities on chitosan (CS), ZnO nanoparticles and prepared chitosan-ZnO (CS-ZnO) nanocomposite were compared.