Propriedades termo-ópticas interfaciais e morfológicas de quitosana dopada com nanopartículas de prata

Abstract

The study of materials composed from the combination of chitosan and silver nanoparticles has attracted the interest of researchers from different areas due to large variety of applications of these systems, such as the development of electro-optical devices and the disease treatment like cancer. Despite the existence of several works devoted to the characterization of the biological activity of these materials, many physical properties have not been explored so far. In this work, we study thermo-optical, interfacial and morphological properties of fluids and lms based on chitosan, by considering the effects associated with the addition of silver nanoparticles. Using a large variety of experimental techniques, it is investigated how the concentration of silver nanoparticles modifies the heat diffusion, fluid adhesion and photodegradation process in chitosan samples. From the time-resolved z-scan measurements in solution of chitosan and silver nanoparticles, it is studied how the heat transport induced by the visible radiation is modifed by the insertion of the metallic nanoparticles. Our results show that thermo-optical coefficient and thermal diffusivity are sensible to the variation of colloids concentration. With respect to morphological properties of chitosan film doped with silver nanoparticles, it is observed that the introduction of guest particles tends to modify the superficial structure of the films, with the formation large clusters of nanoparticles. In relation to interfacial properties associated with wetting phenomenom, it is observed a non-monotonic behavior of the contact angle of castor oil droplets as the silver nanoparticles concentration is increased. The parameters related to wetting phenomenon are computed from the analysis of time-evolution of the droplet spreading, by using a molecular-kinetic theory. Further, the effects of silver concentration on the photodegradation of chitosan films are examined, when the films are exposed to the electromagnetic radiation in the visible and ultraviolet regions. The present results reveal that the photodegradation process of the films depends on the radiation wavelength and the used excitation regime.