Abstract:
Nanotechnology research is emerging as cutting-edge technology and nanoparticles and
nanocomposites have played a significant role in the bioremediation and treatment of polluted
water by organic and non-organic materials. Nanoparticles produced by plant extracts are more
stable and biocompatible in comparison with those produced by physical and chemical methods.
This research focuses on the synthesis of NiO NPs and Cu-NiO NCs using Phytolacca
dodecandra l’herit (P. d) leaves extract and evaluation of their anti-oxidant and Photocatalytic
activities. Cu-NiO NCs were synthesized using 50 mL of 0.1M Nickel (II) nitrate hexahydrate,
10 mL of 0.1M Copper (II) nitrate trihydrate and 20 mL of leaves extract. The synthesized
nanoparticles were characterized by UV-Vis, XRD, FT-IR, and SEM, to study the energy band
gap, average crystallite size, Functional groups, and morphology of the samples respectively.
The UV-Vis analysis showed a red shift as copper doped indicating a decrease in the optical
bandgap values. FT-IR characterization confirms the presence of various functional bands
present in samples. Crystalline sizes of the formed particles were obtained to be 14.18 and 16.10
nm from the XRD data. SEM showed the crystallinity of particles with cubic structure. The
Photocatalytic degradation of Methylene blue (MB) was found to be 78.3 and 97.8% by NiO
NPs and Cu-NiO NCs respectively. In the antioxidant test, NiO NPs and Cu-NiO NCs prevented
the oxidation of 50% of the H2O2 molecules at a concentration of 363.96 μg/mL and 350.29
μg/mL respectively. Finally, the synthesized samples showed good photocatalytic and antioxidant
activities.
