Green synthesis of NiO doped CuO Nanoparticles: Potential for Environmental Remediation

The presented study reports the green synthesis of pure and Ni-doped CuO nanoparticles by Allium staivum (Garlic) extract. Cupric nitrate (Cu (NO3)2) and Nickel nitrate (Ni (NO3)2) as intermediate precursors in Allium staivum (Garlic) extract were used to synthesize Pure and Ni-doped CuO nanoparticles. XRD patterns confirmed the absence of any impurity peaks suggesting the monoclinic phase of CuO and successful doping of Ni into the CuO matrix. Tauc's plots showed an increase in optical band gap energy with the introduction of Ni dopant. The photocatalytic activity of prepared samples was investigated against Methylene blue (MB) dye and Ciprofloxacin (CIP) under the UV light spectrum. The photocatalytic activity results depicted an enhanced photodegradation efficiency of Ni-doped samples against both MB and CIP organic pollutants. The experimental results reveal that the degradation of MB and CIP can reach 70% and 67% respectively. The synthesized samples thus possess a potential for the treatment of antibiotic-contaminated waters for eliminating or reducing antibiotic residues from the environment. Both CuO and CuN nanoparticles at concentrations of 5, 10, 20 and 30 mg/ml were used to investigate bacterial activity against E. coli. CuN refers to nickel doped CuO nanoparticles. Zones of inhibition of the synthesized nanoparticles (derived from green synthesis) against E. coli for CuO and CuN were 11 mm and 28 mm at 30 mg/ml respectively. The large zone of inhibition values reported in this work reveals that the synthesized nanoparticles give better antibacterial activity.