Synthesis and Study of Zinc Oxide Nanorods as an Adsorbent Material for the Removal of Carcinogenic Dye and Anticancer Activities

The present research work targets the synthesis of cost effective nano-zinc oxide and study on efficiency of the synthesized materials towards treatment of hazardous carcinogenic dye from wastewater by adsorption process. In addition to treatment of wastewater, biomedical application of the synthesized zinc oxide nanorods is also tested for its aniticancerous activity. Prepared nano-zinc oxide is characterized by XRD, SEM, EDX, BET, UV-DRS and Raman spectroscopy. The BET analysis data confirmed the larger pore size and hence the easy diffusion of dye molecules into the sorbent material. From the analysis of experimental data the pseudo-first-order model with r(2) value of 0.9988 showed better fit than the pseudo-second-order model. Adsorption of AO7 on ZnO nanostructures evidenced by n value of Frendluich isotherm authenticating the multilayer adsorption on heterogeneous surface of the sorbent material. Furthermore, thermodynamic parameters proved the spontaneous, exothermic nature of the adsorption process. The AO7 removal efficiency of 97% under optimal conditions of adsorbent dose of 100 mg, temperature of 30 degrees C, initial dye concentration of 50 mg/L and initial pH of 8.0 are observed. The cytotoxic effect of the synthesized zinc oxide nanorods was also evaluated using MTT assay. The significant cytotoxic efficacy (IC50) induced by the synthesized zinc oxide nanorods against human melanoma cancer is found to be 11.3 mu g/ml.

Automated summary

This research focuses on the synthesis of cost effective nano-zinc oxide and its efficiency in treating hazardous carcinogenic dye in wastewater through adsorption process. The synthesized zinc oxide nanorods also exhibit significant anti-cancer activity. The findings suggest that nano-zinc oxide has a high adsorption capacity for the dye and has potential biomedical applications in cancer treatment.