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.