Facile synthesis and characterization of ZnO nanoparticles for studying their biological activities and photocatalytic degradation properties toward methylene blue dye

Abstract

Lately, attention to combustion synthesis has been encouraged owing to being cost-effective, rapid, and produces samples with low crystallite sizes and/or different morphology. So, in this paper, for the first time, ZnO nanoparticles were facilely fabricated utilizing the combustion procedure using L-arginine, L-valine, and L-alanine as organic fuels. Besides, the fabricated ZnO samples were recognized using different tools such as FT-IR, XRD, FE-SEM, HR-TEM, and UV–Vis. The XRD patterns show that the mean crystallite size of ZnO samples, which were fabricated operating L-arginine, L-valine, and L-alanine fuels, is 25.24, 31.11, and 35.65 nm, respectively. The HR-TEM images approved that the ZnO samples, which were fabricated operating L-arginine, L-valine, and L-alanine fuels, are composed of irregular, hexagonal, and sphere shapes with an average diameter of 22.46, 34.57, and 40.29 nm, respectively. The EDX patterns display peaks at 1.0 and 8.6 KeV for Zn. Also, there are peaks at 0.6 KeV for O. The values of the energy gap for the ZnO samples, which were fabricated operating L-arginine, L-valine, and L-alanine fuels, are 3.30, 2.88, and 2.63 eV, respectively. The photocatalytic degradation process is an important water treatment method due to its effectiveness in producing hydroxyl free radicals which able to degrade numerous dyes. So, the fabricated ZnO samples were examined for the photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue dye along with biological activity against some strains of bacteria. Furthermore, the maximum percent of degradation of 50 mL of 10 mg/L methylene blue dye under UV irradiations is 54.69, 41.34, and 30.76% after 90 min exploiting the ZnO samples which were fabricated operating L-arginine, L-valine, and L-alanine fuels, respectively. Also, % degradation of methylene blue dye under UV irradiations in the presence of hydrogen peroxide is 100% after 70 min using the ZnO sample which was fabricated operating L-arginine fuel. Moreover, the fabricated ZnO products show high bactericidal activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes, and Enterococcus faecalis. Additionally, the fabricated ZnO products show moderate bactericidal activity against Bacillus cereus and Salmonella typhimurium.