GREEN SYNTHESIS OF ZINC OXIDE NANOPARTICLES USING BAUHINIA VARIEGATA LEAVES FOR EFFECTIVE PHOTOCATALYTIC DEGRADATION OF DYES IN AQUEOUS SOLUTION AND ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITIES (KEY IJP************981)

• Penmethsa Kiran Kumar,Janapareddi Laxmi Mangamma,Golthi Venkatesh

Abstract

Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) were synthesized using Bauhinia variegata (BV) leaf extract through a facile and eco-friendly green synthesis approach. The green-synthesized BV-ZnO NPs were characterized using UV-visible spectroscopy, PXRD, FT-IR, SEM, SEM-EDX, TEM, and SAED. The obtained NPs were spherical and polycrystalline with a crystallite size of 28 nm. BV-ZnO NPs were employed as photocatalysts for the degradation of three dyes, Rhodamine B (RhB), Crystal Violet (CV), and Fluorescein Sodium (FS), from aqueous solutions in sunlight. Photocatalytic degradation of 84.81% of CV dye, 94.82% of FS dye, and 91.54% of RhB dye was achieved in 30 minutes for the CV and FS dyes, whereas it took 180 minutes for the RhB dye. Antimicrobial activity was evaluated using the bacterial strains, gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus, and gram-negative Klebsiella pneumoniae. The study provided a low-cost method for removing hazardous dyes in aqueous solutions using green synthesized ZnO nanoparticles as a photocatalyst.