Fig. 1. FT-IR spectra of a) CS, b) Starch, c) CS-Starch and d) Ag NPs/CS-Starch bio-composite.
The particle morphology, size and shape of the Ag NPs/CS-Starch bio-composite was ascertained by the FE-SEM analysis. As shown in Fig. 2, It represents the dough of flour like appearance. However, no Ag nanoparticle like shaped things or its functional modification structure could be separately identified. Few pseudo-spherical shaped materials can be observed on close observation, characteristic to CS/starch hydrogel mixture. The particle seems to be agglomerated due to manual preparation of samples. However, more detailed insights of the particle structure was obtained from TEM analysis. Fig. 3 reveals the perfectly spherical shaped dark colored nanocomposite particles having dimension in the range of ~5-15 nm. The almost monodisperse particles are spread over the matrix without any sense of aggregation.