Discovery of high antibacterial and catalytic activities of biosynthesized silver nanoparticles using C. fruticosus (CF-AgNPs) against multi-drug resistant clinical strains and hazardous pollutants

Our project focused on cost effective, rapid, and novel plant mediated biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles using Convolvulus fruticosus extract (C. fruticosus; CF-AgNPs). The morphology, size, optical and structural properties of synthesized AgNPs were identified by UV-Vis, DLS, XRD, FESEM, TEM, FT-IR and, EDX techniques. The synthesis conditions were then optimized using essential parameters like AgNO3 concentration, pH, temperature and, reaction time. XRD, TEM, and FESEM analysis of the samples showed the cubic crystal structure, spherical-like shaped particles with about 45 nm sizes. The zeta potential displayed the value of -23.7 mV, indicating the high stability of biosynthesized CF-AgNPs. The FT-IR spectra showed the role of the functional groups in C. fruticosus for the formation of AgNPs such as routine compound. The photocatalytic activity of the synthesized CF-AgNPs was evaluated by degradation of basic blue 9 (BB9) and eriochrome black T (EBT) contaminants under UV and sunlight irradiations. The biosynthesized CF-AgNPs exhibited 86.7% and 81.3% degradation activity against BB9 and BB9 pollutants under UV irradiation, respectively. Furthermore, the biosynthesized nanoparticles showed high antibacterial activity against S. aureus (SA-1), E. faecalis (EF-1), A. baumannii (AB-1), E. coli (EC-1), P. mirabilis (PM-1), K. pneumonia (KP-1), and P. aeruginosa (PA-1) strains with MIC values of 0.1, 0.1, 0.1, 0.1, 1, 1, and 0.5 mu g/ml, respectively. These findings suggest that synthesized silver nanoparticles using C. fruticosus can have applications in various fields such as wastewater treatment and biomedical. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study successfully synthesized stable silver nanoparticles using Convolvulus fruticosus extract, which exhibited excellent photocatalytic and antibacterial activities under UV and sunlight irradiations.