¹Uzhhorod National University, 46, Pidhirna str., 88000 Uzhhorod, Ukraine
²Ferenc Rakoczi II Transcarpathian Hungarian Institute, Kossuth Sq. 6, 90200 Beregovo, Ukraine
³University of Presov, Faculty of Humanity and Natural Sciences, Department of Ecology,
17th November 1, 08116 Presov, Slovakia
⁴P.J. Šafarik University, Institute of Physics, Faculty of Science, Park Angelinum 9, 04154 Kosice, Slovakia
*Corresponding author e-mail: t.malakhovska@gmail.com

Abstract. Chitin and its derivatives are common natural polymers that are widely used in various technological fields. In recent years, considerable attention has been paid to the preparation of polymer nanocomposites based on metal nanoparticles (NPs). Chitin/chitosan-based composites due to high antibacterial activity are suitable for application in related food storage, textile industries. This paper presents an effective and simple method of obtaining chitosan-chitin copolymer/Ag nanocomposites with an extremely high content of metal nanoparticles. The structure and morphology of the synthesized nanocomposites were investigated using X-ray diffractometry, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, electron microscopy, and their optical properties were studied using UV-VIS spectroscopy as well as spectral ellipsometry. It was ascertained that the resulting nanocomposite films are characterized by a uniform distribution of spherical silver nanoparticles, the sizes of which increase (from 55 up to 143 nm) with increasing the Ag+-ions concentration in the reaction mixtures. The optical absorption spectra of nanocomposites are characterized by the presence of an absorption maximum within the range 458…525 nm, which confirms the formation of Ag NPs. A monotonous increase in the values of the energies of optical transitions was observed in the process of increasing the average size of NPs

Keywords: nanocomposite, chitosan, optical properties, electron microscopy, X-ray diffractometry.

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