ENHANCED MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF ORGANIC-INORGANIC CHITOSAN/NANO SILICA COMPOSITE FILM

Abstract

Composites made from organic and inorganic materials are already well-known in exhibiting potential properties as bio-materials. In this study, nano silica was mixed with chitosan solution to fabricate degradable and mechanically robust organic-inorganic composite biomaterial films. The various chitosan and nano silica powder ratio were used to find the optimum amount of each material to get the best film properties. Nano silica was successfully incorporated into chitosan, confirmed by FTIR results, which showed a new peak at 486.06 cm-1 and vibration shift in the area around 1000-1100 cm^-1. The film thickens with an increasing amount of nano silica. The lowest swelling degree and degradation ratio were observed in film mixtures containing 5% nano silica. Samples with the same composition also showed the highest tensile strength. Overall, incorporation of nano silica led to promising results for enhancing film-shaped chitosan composite properties.