Morphological and photocatalytic properties of zinc oxide nanoparticles synthesized from agricultural wastes of Nephelium lappaceum L. and Garcinia mangostan L.

Abstract

A facile, innovative and ecofriendly approach of biofabrication of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO–NPs) using agricultural wastes (seed and peel) of Nephelium lappaceum L. and Garcinia mangostana L. have been demonstrated in this study. Characterizations of ZnO– NPs were carried out using Ultraviolet-Visible (UV– vis) spectrophotometry, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Energy Dispersive spectroscopy (EDX), and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The formation of ZnO-NPs was preliminary confirmed by the UV–vis spectroscopy, by the appearance of peaks between 362– 368 nm. The SEM and TEM images show flower and rod-like arrangements of nanocrystals. As per the TEM images, all the synthesized ZnO-NPs showed the particle size ranging from 29-334 nm. FTIR spectral analysis demonstrated peaks at 3269–3500 cm−1, 2308–2361 cm−1, 2103–2110 cm−1 and 1630–1640 cm−1, 586–632 cm−1 for the plant extracts, whereas an additional peak appeared within the range of 458–499 cm−1 in synthesized ZnO– NPs. The degradation efficiency of ZnO–NPs was measured by the study of photo degradation of Methylene Blue and the results of ZnO–NPs synthesized via seed extract of N. lappaceum demonstrated the highest activity among all the synthesized NPs with a half-life of 78 min with 97% degradation efficiency at 150 min time frame.