Photocatalytic and antibacterial activities of green synthesized Ag doped MgO nanocomposites towards environmental sustainability

ABS T R A C T The utilization of MgO nanoparticles (NPs) for Photocatalytic and antimicrobial activities has gained lots of attention in recent years. Since silver is an expensive material, it's of interest to check that doping of very small concentration of silver will increase the pollutant degradation efficiency of composites. Here Aloe Vera plant extract was used for synthesis of MgO, Ag NPs and Ag/MgO-nanocomposites (NCs). Green synthesized NPs and NCs were confirmed by using different techniques like UV-Vis, BET, TGA, FTIR, PL, XRD (optical, functional, Thermal, Structural) EDX, TEM, SEM, XPS, EIS and EPR (morphological, elemental, photoelectrical and ROS) studies respectively. Then NPs and NCs were applied for the photocatalytic activity of methylene blue (MB), phenol and antimicrobial studies of E. coli bacteria. Ag/MgO-NCs showed 90.18% dye and 80.67% phenol degradation in 120 min which killed E. Coli pathogenic bacteria in 25 min under solar light irradiations. In disk diffusion methods, it inactivates 24 mm area of bacterial cell growth. Thus, among these green synthesized NPs and NCs, Ag/MgO-NCs exhibited enhanced photocatalytic and antimicrobial activities.

Automated summary

In this study, MgO nanoparticles and Ag/MgO nanocomposites were synthesized using aloe vera plant extract. The green-synthesized materials were characterized using various techniques and were found to exhibit enhanced photocatalytic and antimicrobial activities. The Ag/MgO nanocomposites showed high degradation efficiency of methylene blue and phenol, as well as effective killing of E. coli bacteria. The findings suggest the potential of these green-synthesized materials for environmental and medical applications.